aOl 


LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

%eceive$        y/lTiFzr.     ■  i8q3    , 

^rcessio!!S-Noj37jv>  </b  .   Class  No. 


SOCIETY  CHAPERONS  HER  LASSIES,  HER  LADS  SHE  PUSHES 
OUT  TO  LEARN  THE  WORLD    ALONE.     [See  p.  73.] 


THE    SECRET 


OF 


CHARACTER  BUILDING 


BY 


JOHN  B.  DeMOTTE,  A.M.,  Ph.D. 

^•^   OF  THE 

WVER3ITY 


kiiS^P 


CHICAGO 

S.    C.    GRIGGS    AND    COMPANY 

1893 


EDUC. 

PSYCH. 

LIBRARY 


Copyright  1892, 
BY  S.  C.  GRIGGS  AND  COMPANY. 


Z\\i  iLakrsttie  $mss. 

R.  R.  DONNELLEY  &  SONS   CO.,  CHICAGO. 


TO    MY    WIFE, 

WHOSE    GIRLHOOD  WAS    THE    QUEEN  OF  MY    BOYISH  AMBI- 
TIONS   AND    DREAMS  )      WHOSE    YOUNG    WOMANHOOD 
WAS  THE  SOLACE  OF  MY  DISAPPOINTMENTS,  THE 
INSPIRATION     OF     MY     STRUGGLES;     WHOSE 

MOTHERHOOD     IS    A    SACRED     MYSTERY, 

AKIN    TO    THE    DIVINE: 

TO   HER  WHOSE   PRAYERS  AND    FAITH    HAVE    EVER 

BEEN  A  SHEET-ANCHOR  TO  MY  SOUL, 

I    AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATE    THIS    BOOK. 


CONTENTS. 


Frontispiece, 

Dedication, v 

Contents,                       .....  vii 

Illustrations,         ......  ix 

Introduction,      ------  xi 

Chapter  I. 

you  are  anchored  to  earth  by  your  body,  i 
From  the  Outlying  Phenomena  to  the 

Body,        .....  4 

Through  the  Body  to  the  Brain,  46 

From  Brain  to  Ego,        -         -  53 

Chapter  II. 

Character  has  a  Physical  Basis,  58 

What  is  a  Physical  Basis?        -  61 

Chapter  III. 

Two  Liyes  in  One,         -  73 

Sowing  Wild  Oats,            -         -         -         -  74 

Fallen  By  the  Way,     -         -         -  79 

Good  Saint  Good  Sinner,         -         -  81 

how  long  may  you  be  master  ?            -  85 

When  does  Responsibility  Cease  ?  -  88 

Chapter  IV. 

An  Inkling  of  the  Whole  Truth,         -  92 

The  Upward  Way,    -                   -         -         -  101 

Build  Sound  Nerve  Tracks,  106 
Prevent  the   Building  of  Unsound  Nerve 

Tracks,      -         -         -                   -         -  117 

Conclusion,       -    -^nc^-^==^               -         -  124 


((suite 


FULL  PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Page. 

Society  chaperons  her  lassies,  her  lads  she 
pushes  out  to  learn  the  world  alone, 

Frontispiece. 

Yet  I  am  sure  that  from  out  the  latticed 

WINDOW  OF  THAT  LOFTY  OCTAGONAL  TOWER 
A  BELL  IS  WARNING  ME  OF  THE  LATENESS 
OF    THE    HOUR,  -----  j 

The    Bell    has  a    front    or    rim    which    is 

practically  a  circle,     -  7 

Apparatus  to  catch  the    shadow   of  an  air 

wave,        -         -         -         -         -         -         -  17 

Apparatus  to  catch  the  motion  of  complex 

sound  waves,  -  -         -         -         -         2  1 

Photograph     of     waves      from     a     Koenig 

organ  pipe,  256  per  second,  -         -         27 

Photograph   of  waves    from  Voice,  G  above 

MIDDLE   C,  -  -  -  -  -  -  29 

Photograph  of  waves   from   Harmonica,  mi4,  31 

Photograph  of  waves  from  Voice,  mi4,  -  33 

Whistle,  three  octaves  above  middle  C,  -  35 

An  Ideal  Prism,  -----  43 

But  the  Old  Bell  is  Counting  off  another 

Hour, 47 

The  Harp  of  the  Senses,     -  -  55 

An  Inkling  of  the  Whole  Truth,      -  -  93 


INTRODUCTION. 

Scientific  Truth,  for  the  most  part,  is  locked  up 
in  technical  nomenclature,  and,  while  it  is  beyond 
dispute  that  a  single  equation  may  be  made  to 
express  more  than  can  be  put  into  a  volume  of 
everyday  words,  yet  if  the  truth  that  the  equation 
contains  would  be  helpful,  society  has  the  right  to 
that  truth  in  its  own  vernacular. 

The  indifference,  not  to  say  contempt,  that  is 
affected  in  some  circles  towards  the  popularization 
of  scientific  knowledge,  is  unworthy  the  age  in 
which  we  live  and  out  of  tune  with  the  spirit  of 
modern  institutions. 

Truth  is  not  so  contagious  that  it  must  needs  be 
quarantined; — the  only  concern  should  be  that  he 
who  dresses  it  in  the  language  of  the  street  and 
the  home  shall  present  that  which  is  genuine. 

Recent  scientific  research  has  developed  many 
marvelous  facts  touching  the  means  by  which  we 
become  aware  of  what  exists  external  to  ourselves; 
facts,  some  of  which,  I  can  but  believe,  have  a 
tremendous  bearing  upon  that  collection  of  per- 
sonal qualities  in  us  called  Character;  explaining 


Xll  INTRODUCTION. 

many  perplexing  discouragements  experienced  by 
those  who  labor  for  the  moral  uplift  of  their  fellows, 
and  furnishing  a  key  to  the  better  accomplishment 
of  that  which  we  should  desire  above  all  things 
else  —  the  complete  dethronement  of  the  evil  and 
the  full  embodiment  of  the  good  within  ourselves. 
It  is  the  office  of  this  little  book  to  reinforce  in 
a  practical,  unambitious  way  some  of  the  noblest 
teachings  of  the  Church  concerning  the  spiritual 
life,  with  these  latelv  formulated,  but  vitally  im- 
portant scientific  truths  upon  which  that  spiritual 
life  leans  more  heavily  than  we  have  been  willing 
to  allow. 


^£>      OF  THB        « 

'UFI7BRSIT7] 


Fig 


YET  I  AM  SURE  THAT  FROM  OUT  THE  LATTICED  WINDOW  OF 
THAT  LOFTY  OCTAGONAL  TOWER  A  BELL  IS  WARN- 
ING ME  OF  THE  LATENESS  OF  THE  HOUR. 


•V       0?  THIS 

riVBRs: 

CHAPTER    I. 

VOL'  ARE  ANCHORED  TO  EARTH  BY  YOUR  BODY. 

You  can  net  escape  the  conviction  that 
you  are  not  your  body.  Call  yourself  by 
whatsoever  name  pleaseth  you  —  soul,  spirit, 
mind,  substance,  arch-monad,  pontifical  cell, 
stream  of  thought — these  and  more  are  only 
vague  attempts  at  formulating  an  expression 
for  one  and  the  same  indefinable  spiritual 
agent  whom  you  are  constantly  recognizing 
as  Yourself  —  the  pure  Ego. 

You  know  that  your  most  intimate  friend 
has  never  seen  You.  The  sparkle  of  your 
eyes  may  be  quite  familiar  to  that  friend; 
your  rosy  cheek ;  your  voice ;  even  your 
walk  may  discover  you  among  a  thousand; 
yet  that  friend  has  never  seen  You ;  only 
the  house  in  which  You  live.  It  will  not 
destroy  that  friend's  affection  should  your 
eyes  lose  their  youthful  luster,  your  cheek 
fade  to  the  ashes  of  roses;  your  voice 
become  faint  and  uncertain.  Nay,  though 
age   or   sickness   or    disaster    should   wither 


2  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

that  robust  body  to  the  merest  shadow  of 
its  former  self,  yet  your  friend's  regard  for 
You  will  have  grown  only  the  stronger ; 
because  true  affection  is  between  your 
Selves,  not  your  bodies. 

But  you  have  no  way  of  studying  your 
Self  except  through  your  body. 

You  may  have  held  a  loved  one  in  your 
arms  when  the  balance  was  trembling  be- 
tween life  and  death,  watching  with  the 
whole  intensity  of  your  being  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  a  Spirit  separated  from  its  earthly 
anchorage;  but  you  failed.  Sweetly  it  bade 
you  good-bye,  and  silently,  invisibly  with- 
drew— and  all  was  over.  No  tears  of  yours, 
nor  prayers,  could  bring  it  back,  for  it  is  not 
the  office  of  prayers  nor  tears  to  raise  the 
dead. 

Hence  two  very  interesting  and  important 
questions  present  themselves:  Since  You 
can  not  be  catechised  except  through  the 
body,  how  does  the  external  world  become 
known  to  You  ?  and,  how  do  You  become 
known  to  the  external  world? 

Imagine  your  Self  within  your  body,  with- 


out  ever  having  had  the  ability  to  taste  or 
smell  or  touch  or  hear  or  see.  What  a 
dungeon !  You  can  learn  nothing  of  the 
external  world,  neither  can  your  knocking 
against  your  prison  walls  in  any  way  indicate 
that  You  are  within.  But  a  door  opens  to 
You  —  the  sense  of  Taste,  with  its  accom- 
panying nerves  and  nerve  centers.  When 
these  nerves  are  properly  stimulated,  You 
become  conscious  of  agreeable  sensations, 
of  not  a  very  high  order,  but  they  do  not 
help  you  to  escape.  Another  door  opens 
—  the  sense  of  Smell.  The  fragrance  of  a 
rose  on  a  table  near  and  of  a  distant  flowery 
meadow  come  floating  in,  and  You  derive 
a  confused  sort  of  pleasure  from  them ; 
but  for  all  that  You  can  tell,  the  meadow 
might  be  on  the  table  and  the  rose  a  thou- 
sand leagues  away.  What  they  have  to  give 
must  be  brought  to  You,  and  You  can  never 
know  whence  the  gift  comes.  Now  the 
sense  of  Touch,  with  its  beautiful  network 
of  in -and -out -carrying  nerves,  suddenly 
wakes  into  activity.  For  the  first  time  You 
realize   that    your   prison   walls    have   outer 


4  SECRET    OE    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

boundaries,  and  You  are  permitted  to  take  a 

little  promenade  as  far  as  your  finger-tips  can 

reach.     But  hark  !   your  ears  are  unstopped. 

What  a  wealth   of    harmony  delights  You ! 

Yet  all  these  are  not  to  be  compared  with 

what  now  bursts  in.     The  scales  are  lifted 

from  your  eyes,   and 

"Behold,  the  distant  and  the  near 
Stand  forth  in  sunny  outline  clear." 

Marvelous  transformations.  Glorious  pos- 
sessions. A  prisoner  no  longer.  Your  very 
prison  walls  have  become  willing  messengers 
to  minister  to  your  pleasure.  They  bring 
You  tidings  from  mountain  top  and  yonder 
twinkling  star.  Reclining  at  your  ease,  You 
revel  in  the  shade  and  redolence  of  orange- 
groves,  amid  the  warblings  of  bright-winged, 
sweet-voiced  birds,  and  under  the  lace-like 
traceries  of  the  shadowy  clouds  against  a 
deep  blue  sky. 

FROM  THE  OUTLYING  PHENOMENA  TO  THE  BODY. 

But  how  are  all  these  things  brought 
about  ?  The  answer  to  this  question  involves 
some  of  the  most  splendid  results  of  scien- 
tific research. 


FROM  THE  OUTLYING  PHENOMENA,     5 

I  begin  with  those  transferences  of  energy 
which  bring  the  outlying  phenomena  within 
reach  of  the  senses. 

Sitting  to-night  with  my  window  open 
towards  one  of  the  most  extensive  groups 
of  educational  buildings  in  all  Germany,  the 
University  of  Bonn,  the  rich,  mellow  voice 
of  a  bell  is  borne  in  on  the  fragrant  night  air. 
Why  do  I  hear  it?  How  do  I  know  that  in 
yonder  ancient  Minister  there  is  a  bell,  and 
that  it  is  now  counting  off  the  hours  since 
midnight  ?  I  have  never  been  to  the  top  of 
the  wearisome  stair  over  which  it  hangs, 
and  no  one  has  ever  told  me  that  it  is  there  ; 
yet  I  am  sure  that  from  out  the  latticed 
window  of  that  lofty  octagonal  tower  a  bell 
is  warning  me  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour. 

The  bell  has  a  front  or  rim  which  is  prac- 
tically a  circle.  Receiving  the  energy  of 
the  hammer-stroke  at  A,  figure  3,  the  rim 
yields  slightly,  assuming  the  form  of  an 
ellipse,  its  shorter  diameter  being  along  the 
line  of  the  stroke  and  its  longer  diameter  at 
right  angles,  along  the  line  B.  The  four 
points   where  the  lines  C  and  D  touch  the 


6  SECRET    OE    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

rim  at  equal  distances  from  the  above  men- 
tioned points  of  greatest  displacement,  re- 
main fairly  at  rest.  But  the  elasticity  of 
bell-metal  requires  the  rim  to  return  from 
its  present  strained  condition  to  its  circular 
form — and  more,  the  inertia  of  the  moving 
segments  carries  them  beyond  the  condition 
of  equilibrium  to  that  of  an  ellipse  at  right 
angles  to  the  former  one. 

These  recurrent  changes  of  place,  or 
vibrations,  continue  until  the  energy  is  spent 
in  doing  work  upon  the  film  of  air  lying 
nearest  the  bell,  or  is  dissipated  into  a  live- 
lier kind  of  vibration  called  Heat.  The  film 
of  air  is  likewise  displaced,  and  possessing 
the  same  properties,  elasticity  and  inertia, 
it,  too,  is  set  to  vibrating,  a  large  portion  of 
its  energy  being  transmitted  to  the  film 
lying  next  to  it — and  so  on,  until,  presently, 
a  very  small  area  of  the  series  of  concentric 
waves  of  condensation  and  rarefaction 
reaches  my  ear.  The  first  wave  may  not 
attract  my  attention,  but  a  very  few  vibra- 
tions are  sufficient  to  give  me  a  definite 
notion  of  the  Pitch   of  the  bell.     This  pitch 


Fig.  3. 


THE  BELL  HAS  A  FRONT  OR  RIM  WHICH  IS  PRACTICALLY 
A  CIRCLE. 


^>       OF  THE*^^ 

'VHIVBR3ITT! 


FROM  THE  OUTLYING  PHENOMENA.     9 

will  remain  constant  so  long  as  the  impulses 
continue  to  reach  my  ear  at  this  Rate.  But 
were  I  to  rush  towards  the  bell,  it  would  ap- 
pear to  have  raised  its  tone,  because  more 
than  the  former  number  of  vibrations  would 
reach  me  in  a  given  time;  and  my  traveling 
in  the  opposite  direction  would  have  the 
contrary  effect.  You  may  remember  the 
suddenness  with  which  the  locomotive  bell 
seems  to  lower  its  pitch  as  an  express  train 
dashes  past  you.  As  long  as  the  bell  and 
you  remain  the  same  distance  apart,  its  pitch 
is  normal,  because  the  sound  waves  reach 
you  with  the  same  frequency  that  they  are 
produced.  And  as  the  locomotive  ap- 
proaches at  a  definite  rate,  the  pitch  will  be 
constant,  but  higher  than  normal,  because 
now  more  than  the  normal  number  of  waves 
reach  your  ear  in  a  given  time.  But  at  the 
instant  when  the  locomotive  dashes  past  you, 
the  pitch  of  the  bell  suddenly  drops  below 
the  normal,  because,  the  waves  having  now 
a  greater  distance  to  travel,  fewer  of  them 
reach  your  ear  in  a  given  time.  Should  the 
receding  locomotive  come  to  rest,  the  pitch 
of  the  bell  would  rise  to  the  normal  again. 


10  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

This  principle  is  so  well  established  that, 
knowing  the  normal  pitch,  you  may  readily 
calculate  the  speed  of  the  train  from  the 
pitch  of  the  approaching  or  receding  bell; 
or,  knowing  the  speed  of  the  train,  you  may 
determine  the  normal  pitch  of  the  bell  from 
the  higher  pitch  that  it  seems  to  have  when 
coming  toward  you,  or  from  the  lower  pitch 
caused  by  its  retreat. 

The  Minister  bell  is  sending  out  for  its 
fundamental  tone  about  two  hundred  and  six- 
ty-five waves  per  second,  which  is  four  waves 
more  than  are  produced  by  striking  middle 
C  of  your  piano.  The  heaviest  string  of  a 
modern  grand  gives  twenty-seven  and  a 
half,  while  its  shortest  string  yields  forty- 
two  hundred  waves  per  second.  Between 
these  two  extremes  are  safely  included  all 
of  the  magnificent  tone  effects  produced  by 
full  orchestra,  chorus  and  grand  organ,  so 
far  as  fundamental  tones  are  concerned. 
Some  celebrated  bass  singers  have  been  able 
to  take  B  two  octaves  below  the  B  adjacent 
to  middle  C,  a  little  more  than  sixty-one 
vibrations   per    second;  while    it    is   claimed 


FROM  THE  OUTLYING  PHENOMENA.     I  I 

that  Patti  can  take,  when  in  her  most  ex- 
alted moods,  the  B  five  octaves  above  the 
lowest  limit  of  the  best  bass  voice,  about 
nineteen  hundred  and  fifty-seven  vibrations 
per  second.  But  these  figures  are  a  full 
octave  wider  apart  than  are  warranted  by 
the  extreme  limits  attained  by  the  voices  of 
even  our  best  vocalists. 

But  the  Ego  may  receive  impressions 
through  the  ear  far  beyond  these  limits. 
Sounds  too  acute  to  be  musical  can  be  heard 
by  most  persons  all  the  way  up  to  fifteen 
thousand  vibrations  per  second,  almost  three 
octaves  above  the  highest  note  ever  taken 
by  the  human  voice,  and  some  persons  claim 
to  be  able  to  hear  more  than  a  full  octave 
higher  still ;  but  perhaps  the  imagination 
assists  in  these  extreme  cases.  In  some 
experiments  which  the  writer  made  recently, 
an  ambitious  young  professor  in  a  leading 
university  was  able  to  hear  " quite  distinctly" 
the  ticking  of  my  stop-watch  six  feet  away, 
when  the  watch  was  not  running.  Professor 
A.  M.  Mayer  states  the  case  with  great  fair- 
ness when,   after  careful  tests,  he   fixes  the 


12  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

limit  of  hearing  in  some  distinguished  persons 
as  follows  :  * 

Vibrations  per  second. 

Prof.  Joseph  Henry,     -     -       12,300 
Alfred  M.  Mayer,       -  16,400 

Chief  Justice  Waite,     -     -       20,500 

Thus  the  external  world  speaks  to  us  in  a 
vast  variety  of  keys,  but  the  pitch  of  each  of 
them  depends  solely  upon  so  small  a  thing 
as  the  number  of  waves  that  are  received  by 
the  ear  in  a  given  time.        , 

Besides  Pitch,  the  waves  bring  with  them 
the  notion  of  Intensity.  If  the  hammer - 
strokes  be  uneven  in  their  force,  the  air 
particles,  by  their  greater  or  less  displace- 
ment, will  tell  me  so  ;  or,  if  I  station  myself 
nearer  to  or  farther  away  from  the  Miinster, 
I  may  judge  with  fair  accuracy  of  my 
position  by  the  energy  of  the  waves. 

As  indicated  in  the  diagram,  figure  4,  the 
total  energy  of  the  hammer -stroke,  if  con- 
fined to  a  small  concentric  sphere  of  air, 
will  produce  a  greater  displacement  of 
air -particles  than  when  that  same  energy 
has    been    passed    out    to    a    much    larger 

*Appleton's  Physics,  p.  399. 


FROM  THE  OUTLYING  PHENOMENA, 


outlying  layer  of  air.  It  must  not  be 
understood,  however,  that  Intensity  depends 
entirely  upon  the  energy  of  the  wave,  for  at 
a    different    Pitch    a    less    energetic    stroke 


Fig.  4. 
might  send   me   an   impression   of  a  louder 
sound. 

The  more  difficult  question  remains,  how 
do  I  know  that  it  is  a  bell  and  not  a  whistle 
or  a  voice  that  is  calling:  off  the  hours?     The 


14 


SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 


waves  are  most  certainly  able  to  tell  me  not 
only  the  Pitch  and  the  Intensity  of  the 
sound,  but  its  Timbre  as  well ;  but  how?  If 
you  touch  lightly  at  its  middle  point  any 
open  string,  a  violin  or  guitar  string  for 
example,  while  sounding,  you  may  detect  a 
tone  an  octave  higher  than  the  open  note. 
Touching    at   one -third   the    distance    from 


Fig.  5. 

either  end  of  the  string,  you  get  a  fifth 
above  the  octave.  Touching  at  one -fourth, 
you  hear  the  second  octave  above  the  open 
string  —  and  so  on,  as  indicated  in  figure  5. 
But  without  the  aid  of  your  finger,  the 
open  string  while  sounding  divides  into 
halves,    thirds,     fourths,    etc.,     sending    out 


FROM    THE    OUTLYING    1'ITKNOMENA. 


15 


waves  of  two,  three,  four,  etc.,  times  the 
vibration  frequency  of  the  open  string. 
They  may  be  so  slight  that  it  will  require 
great  care  to  detect  them,  but  their  influence 
upon  the  form  of  this  fundamental  wave  is 
so  marked  that  you  readily  recognize  the 
violin  or  guitar  tone  from  that  of  any  other 
musical  instrument,  although  of  the  same 
pitch. 


A  beautiful  theory  announced  by  Professor 
Helmholtz  is  to  the  effect  that  all  differences 
in  timbre  are  due  to  differences  in  the  number 
and  intensity  of  these  upper  partial  waves. 

For  example,  a  tuning  fork  on  a  resonant 
box    gives    a    simple    tone,    which    may    be 


1 6  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

represented  by  the  first  illustration  of  the 
open  string,  in  figure  5,  while  the  flute 
produces  along  with  the  fundamental  the 
octave  higher,  represented  singly  by  the 
second  illustration  figure  5;  but  these  two 
waves  combining,  change  the  resultant  wave 
to  the  form  indicated  by  figure  6,  where  the 
dotted  line  shows  the  lower  tone,  and  the 
continuous  line  the  effect  produced  upon  it 
by  the  octave. 

To  produce  the  clarionet  timbre  when, 
for  example,  middle  C  is  sounded,  its  simple 
waves  are  modified  by  the  tones  of  the 
second  G  above,  the  E  next  higher,  and  a 
still  higher  note  not  in  the  ordinary  scale. 
The  form  of  the  resultant  waves  from  a 
violin  is  more  complex,  but  the  violin  is  not 
so  rich  in  these  upper  partials  as  is  the 
human  voice. 

Professor  Helmholtz's  explanation  was 
accepted  at  once  and  has  been  confi- 
dently taught  and  illustrated  ever  since ; 
but  quite  recently  the  wonderfully  accurate 
compound  wave  siren  of  Professor  Koenig, 
of  Paris,  has  shown  that  no  combination  or 


csrr 


^r-a.;^ 


OF  THE 


'tjhivbrsi 


FROM    THE    OUTLYING    PHENOMENA.  1 9 

variation  of  intensity  in  these  mathematically 
developed  upper  partial  tones  can  furnish 
any  such  different  qualities  of  tone  as  are 
produced  by  the  instruments  I  have 
mentioned.  That  timbre  is  indicated  to 
the  ear  by  a  modified  form  of  the  simple 
wave  is  beyond  dispute,  but  it  is  very 
evident  to  any  one  who  has  had  the 
delightful  privilege  of  hearing  Professor 
Koenig's  siren  under  his  own  skillful  touch, 
that  the  components  of  complex  sound- 
waves are  not  of  mathematical  exactness 
and  regularity  of  phase  and  intensity,  but 
mixed  and  varying.  The  upper  partials 
indicated  by  Professor  Helmholtz  do  exist, 
but  not  purely  nor  alone. 

So  the  question,  what  constitutes  timbre? 
remains  an  open  one,  but  the  following  new 
experiments,  especially  the  second,  may 
sometime    throw    additional    light   upon    it : 

The  apparatus  indicated  in  figure  7  con- 
sists of  an  oxy  -  hydrogen  lantern,  between 
the  condensers  and  objective  of  which  a 
perforated  disk  is  placed  so  that  when 
revolved  the  light  is  flashed  out  and  cut  off 


20  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

at  regular  intervals.  An  electric  motor 
conveniently  secures  regularity  of  rotation. 
A  deep  -  toned  organ  pipe  is  set  at  some 
favorable  position  in  the  room,  the  best 
results  depending  upon  a  variety  of  condi  - 
tions.  Multiplex  echoes  are  especially 
trying,  while  a  single  reflecting  wall  at 
proper  distance  to  secure  a  series  of  strongly 
reinforced  waves  at  right  -  angles  to  the  path 
of  the  flashes  is  favorable.  The  organ  -  pipe 
gives  out  a  steady  tone  of,  say,  seventy  -  two 
waves  per  second,  and  the  light  is  flashed 
with  the  same  frequency. 

The  writer  is  indebted  to  Professor 
Nichols,  of  Cornell  University,  for  the 
suggestion  of  an  equal  number  of  smaller 
siren  holes,  shown  in  the  disk,  to  secure  an 
exact  measure  of  coincidence  of  sound  -  wave 
and  flash,  which  occurs,  as  will  be  readily 
understood,  when  the  pitch  of  the  faint  note 
caused  by  forcing  air  through  a  small  tube 
against  the  siren  holes  is  in  unison  with  the 
organ  pipe. 

The  waves  from  the  organ  pipe  are  about 
fifteen    feet    long,    the    little    siren    note    is 


j£^)S  THE        ^ 


FROM  THE  OUTLYING  PHENOMENA.    23 

exactly  in  tune,  the  disk  is  making  nine 
revolutions  or  seventy-two  flashes  per  second, 
and  upon  the  opposite  wall  of  a  very  dark 
auditorium  is  caught  the  autograph  of  the 
invisible  nodes  and  antinodes  in  three 
stately  pairs  of  columnar  lights  and  shades. 

The  second  apparatus,  figure  8,  is  more 
complicated,  and  promises  some  interesting 
results.  It  has  grown  out  of  a  description 
by  Professor  Sedley  Taylor  of  a  much 
cruder  instrument  which  he  called  the 
Phoneidoscope.  Those  who  experimented 
with  the  Phoneidoscope  were  disappointed 
because  of  the  bursting  of  films  and  their 
failure  to  produce  figures  of  sufficient  defi- 
niteness  and  regularity  to  indicate  with  any 
certainty  the  character  of  the  tones  producing 
them.  But  the  fault  was  not  in  the  principle, 
and  all  and  more  than  Professor  Taylor 
claimed  can  now  be  accomplished. 

Persistent  films  are  usually  made  from 
oleate  of  soda,  glycerin  and  water,  in  varying 
quantities.  A  single  film  under  favorable 
circumstances  should  stand  vigorous  bom- 
bardment for  half  an  hour. 


24  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

Light  from  a  lantern  or  the  sun  is  reflected 
from  the  film  at  A  through  the  objective  B 
into  a  specially  arranged  photographic 
apparatus  not  shown  in  the  figure.  The 
value  of  the  experiments  consists  in  the 
analysis  and  comparison  of  the  resultant 
waves  caught  in  the  photographs. 

Not  only  does  each  change  of  pitch  in  a 
given  instrument  produce  a  definite  and 
constant  change  of  figure,  but  instruments 
of  different  quality  of  tone  at  the  same  pitch 
produce  characteristic  and  easily  recogniza- 
ble figures.  Distinctions  in  voice  -  quality 
are  recorded  with  wonderful  fidelity. 

The  tube  A  in  the  figure  is  not  a  good 
contrivance  for  conducting  the  sound  waves 
to  the  film.  It  reinforces  some  and  destroys 
the  quality  of  others.  A  better  device  is  a 
plain  plate  with  square  aperture  for  holding 
the  film  in  position.  The  film  is  then  free, 
except  at  the  edges,  to  absorb  the  wave  - 
motion  and  toss  it  by  means  of  the  reflected 
ether  waves  against  the  photographic  plate. 

It  is  not  appropriate  to  the  purpose  of 
this  book  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  these 


FROM  THE  OUTLYING  PHENOMENA.    25 

figures.  A  few  photographs  of  the  simpler 
forms  are  introduced  to  illustrate  the 
complexity  of  the  waves  of  energy  which 
bear  us  news  from  the  external  world 
through  the  sense  of  hearing.  These 
figures  must  not  be  confounded  with  those 
from  Kladni's  plates  and  the  Lissajous 
apparatus,  which  merely  make  visible  the 
motions  of  the  vibrating  bodies  producing 
the  sound  waves;  nor  with  the  figures  from 
sand  and  lighter  substances  upon  stretched 
membranes  where  the  molecular  motion  of 
the  membrane  is  exceedingly  limited.  In 
the  apparatus  above  described  the  film  is 
free,  in  two  dimensions  at  least,  to  join  with 
the  air  particles  in  their  actual  journeys. 

We  have  reached  the  upper  limit  of  the 
sense  of  Hearing,  but  by  no  means  the  limit 
of  vibration,  nor  of  sensation.  In  fact,  we 
are  only  fairly  begun;  and  before  following 
the  vibrations  of  the  bell  on  through  the 
body  to  the  Ego,  it  may  be  well  to  gather  up 
and  interpret  these  more  rapid  waves,  which 
appeal  to  other  senses,  and  bring  us  tidings 
of  other  out]^:itig.p.henomena. 


26  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

Above  Sound  there  is  an  unexplored 
region,  full,  perhaps,  of  waves  that  would  be 
serviceable  to  us  had  we  only  some  sense  to 
receive  them.  Such  a  thing  as  inventing  a 
new  sense  is  quite  possible.  It  has  already 
been  done — not  a  sense  that  is  in  direct 
nerve  communication  with  the  brain,  but 
what  for  the  purpose  amounts  to  precisely 
the  same  thing,  a  sort  of  an  interpreter  of 
a  new  tongue  to  senses  which  we  already 
possess.  For  years  there  had  been  a  feeling 
among  physicists  that  electrical  energy  is 
transferable  by  some  kind  of  vibratory 
motion,  but  as  the  Rate  is  not  such  that  the 
waves  could  affect  any  of  our  senses  directly, 
the  practical  demonstration  of  their  presence 
was  almost  despaired  of.  In  1889  Professor 
Henry  Hertz,  now  professor  of  Physics  in 
the  University  of  Bonn,  in  a  wonderfully 
ingenious  way,  hit  upon  a  beautiful  device 
which  answers  admirably  to  an  electrical  ear. 
It  gathers  up  electrical  waves  as  easily  as 
the  sense  of  Hearing  does  those  to  which 
we  have  already  referred. 

By  a  splendid  series  of  experiments  with 


Fig.  9. 


KOENIG  PIPE  UT3,  256  VIBRATIONS  PER  SECOND,     MIDDLE  C.  OF 
PHYSICAL  PITCH. 


Fig,  to. 
VOICE,  G  ABOVE  MIDDLE  C,  391.3  VIBRATIONS  PER  SECOND. 


7<V  OF 


THE 


JHI7BRSI1 


Fig. 


HARMONICA,  MI4  SECOND  E  ABOVE  MIDDLE  C, 
652.3  VIBRATIONS  PER  SECOND. 


■   0*  THE 

JIVERSIT 


Fig.  12. 
VOICE,  SAME  PITCH  AS  FIGURE 


jj%  jt^, 

& 

fm  " 

t  I 

,|        #           ,; 

1  ^ 

*M* 

■  • 

r#if 

'   #/ 

r  ^p  jfc 

^•Ik 

* 

*^f 

1  #3 

\€l  * 

%  (^  ,# 

Wit*' 

#  ( 

;  #  > 

^♦| 

»    : 

f**fc 

w  Jk  1 

#      / 

c*> 

1  ^%  jl 

k  *S 

€  ♦ * 

i  *^ 

***v\     (  «►. 

■n  ^j^      ; 

WHIP.      ~-  ' 

Fig.  i3. 

WHISTLE,  THREE  OCTAVES  ABOVE  MIDDLE  C,  2088  VIBRATIONS 
PER  SECOND. 


FROM  THE  OUTLYING  PHENOMENA.    37 

this  new  sense,  it  has  been  quite  satisfac- 
torily demonstrated  that  electricity  may 
manifest  itself  by  vibrations  which  are  very 
much  more  rapid  than  sound  waves,  but 
slower  than  heat  waves,  and  still  slower  than 
light  waves,  and  that  these  electrical  waves 
are  due  to  stresses  or  strains  of  this  mar- 
velous, universal  medium,  Ether.  The 
electric  waves  which  have  been  oftenest 
measured  are  about  one  hundred  millions 
to  the  second. 


Fig.  14. 

These  experiments  have  aroused  an  un- 
usual interest  and  have  been  repeated  under 
a  great  variety  of  conditions.  The  reader 
will  readily  understand  that  if  A  and  B  of 
the  accompanying  diagram,  figure  14,  were 
spheres  connected  by  a  tube  having  a 
check-valve  in  it,  and  that  if  A  were  filled 
with  air  to  a  high  pressure  and  B  made 
empty,  a  sudden  opening  of  the  valve  would 


38  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

cause  the  air  to  rush  from  A  into  B.  But 
the  flow  would  not  cease  when  the  pressure 
in  the  two  spheres  became  the  same.  The 
inertia  of  the  moving  air  would  cause  the 
rush  to  continue  until  the  density  in  B  was 
greater  than  in  A.  A  backward  flow  would 
follow  until  A  had  become  again  over- 
charged. This  oscillation  would  continue 
until,  from  various  losses  of  energy,  an 
equilibrium  would  finally  become  estab- 
lished. 

Now  let  us  fill  A  (so  to  speak)  with  elec- 
tricity from  one  electrode  of  an  induction 
coil,  C,  or  from  a  plate-machine  or  dynamo, 
while  B  is  connected  with  the  opposite  elec- 
trode, as  shown  in  the  figure.  The  spheres 
or  plates  are  metal.  Presently  the  ether 
strain  becomes  great  enough  to  overcome 
the  resistance  of  air  between  the  two 
brightly  polished  metal  balls  at"s,"  and  a 
rush  occurs,  an  electric  spark  leaping  across 
the  open  space.  But  now,  just  as  in  the 
case  of  the  illustration  with  the  compressed 
air,  an  ether  oscillation  is  set  up  between  A 
and  B.     It  is  quite   evanescent,  as  much  so 


FROM  THE  OUTLYING  PHENOMENA.    39 

as  are  the  vibrations  of  a  lath  one  end  of 
which  is  fastened  in  a  vise.  Instead  of  being 
constant  and  regular,  it  is  more  like  this, 
figure  15,  and  with  a  duration  of  less  than  a 
millionth  of  a  second. 

From  the  coil  we  push  in  more  energy, 
and  keep  up  the  irregular  oscillation  between 
the  condensers,  as  the  hammer  does  with 
the  bell.     But   how  are  we  to  take   note  of 


Fig.  15. 

the  vibration?  Our  ears  are  too  dull  to 
catch  so  rapid  a  motion,  and  it  is  too  slow 
for  our  eyes.  Here  is  where  Professor 
Hertz's  electric  ear  comes  into  play.  Tak- 
ing advantage  of  a  well-known  principle  in 
Sound,  called  sympathetic  vibration,  he  con- 
structed another  pair  of  metal  plates,  or 
merely  wires  in  the  original  experiment, 
which  intensify  the  effect  until   it   becomes 


40 


SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 


high  enough  to  appeal  to  the  eye,  as  a  spark 
at  F  from  one  of  the  plates  D  to  the  other 
(E  being  an  insulator).    Figure  16. 

All  that  is  now  necessary  is  to  carry  the 
electric  ear  about  to  discover  the  presence 
of  the  ether  waves  caused  by  what  we  call 
electricity,  whatever  that  may  be.  We  may 
reflect  them  and  refract  them;  spread  them 
out  on  wires  and  observe  nodes  and  anti- 
nodes  by  the  beautiful  electric  glow,  and 
even    polarize    them.     As    Professor    Hertz 


Fig.  i 


well  says:  "We  see  only  waves  crossing  in 
space,  separating,  combining  and  reinforcing 
or  destroying  one  another." 

While  Professor  Hertz's  experiments  are 
proving  exceedingly  fruitful  of  practical  re- 
sults which  ere  long  may  revolutionize  our 
present  methods  of  producing  heat  and  light, 
the  vital  interest  that  attaches  to  them  in  this 
writing  is  that  they  have  extended  the  range 
of   our   senses.     He   has    discovered    waves 


FROM    THE    OUTLYING    PHENOMENA.  4 1 

heretofore  out  of  our  reach.  Who  dare  say 
that  the  future  may  not  develop  methods 
by  which  others  of  the  billions  of  waves  to 
which  we  are  now  senseless  may  be  captured 
and  harnessed  to  do  us  service? 

Air,  which  was  quite  the  thing  for  trans- 
mitting sound  waves  at  their  average  ve- 
locity of  about  eleven  hundred  feet  per 
second,  is  wholly  unfit  for  the  transmission 
of  impulses  at  a  speed  almost  a  million  times 
as  great;  hence  the  necessity,  all  these 
years,  of  assuming  the  existence  of  a  less 
sluggish  medium;  but  by  these  experiments 
the  existence  of  ether  is  no  longer  an  as- 
sumption, it  is  fairly  proved. 

But,  because  this  beautiful  arithmetical 
analogy  exists  between  sound  waves  and 
electrical  waves,  it  must  not  be  inferred  that 
a  sound  wave,  if  it  were  possible  to  quicken 
it  up  to  a  vibration  frequency  of  a  hun- 
dred millions  per  second,  would  become 
an  electrical  wave;  nor  that  an  electrical 
wave  slowed  down  to  within  the  range 
of  sound  waves,  would  be  heard.  The 
waves    are    not    similar    in    other    respects. 


42  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

The  vibration  of  air  particles  in  a  sound 
wave,  whether  simple  or  complex,  is  known 
to  be,  in  general,  a  to-ancl-fro  motion  along 
the  line  of  direction  which  the  sound  is  trav- 
eling. It  is  equally  well  known  that  ether,  in 
transmitting  electrical  waves,  of  which  light 
and  heat  are  only  special  manifestations, 
does  not  so  move. 

Above  the  electrical  waves  thus  far  meas- 
ured there  is  another  unexplored  region. 
The  Bolometer  and  the  Thermopile  have 
found  some  heat  waves,  and  the  electrical 
ear  some  electrical  waves,  both  above  and 
below  the  region  of  their  maximum  intensity, 
but  they  are  feeble — evidently  a  good  way 
from  home  and  not  well  acclimated. 

When  the  rate  has  increased  to  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  trillions  per 
second,  the  sense  of  touch  steps  in,  and  we 
receive  the  effect  as  radiant  heat.  An- 
other unexplored  region,  and  then  that 
princely  sense  sight  begins  to  bring  us 
tidings.  Waves  whose  vibration  frequency 
is  about  three  hundred  and  ninety-five 
trillions  give  us  the  first  impression  of  vision, 


V£ 


L_ - 


FROM    THE    OUTLYING    PHENOMENA.  45 

painting  all  that  we  see  in  dull  red  hues. 
As  the  rate  increases,  the  color  passes 
through  all  the  shades  of  red,  merging  into 
orange,  then  green,  blue,  indigo  and  finally 
violet,  and  fading  into  darkness  again  at 
about  eight  hundred  and  thirty-one  trillions. 
Beyond  these,  and  affecting  principally  the 
senses  of  Taste  and  Smell,  are  the  maximum 
chemical  waves  having  about  double  this 
last  named  rate. 

Besides  doing  many  other  useful  things, 
they  churn  the  carbonic  acid  gas  gathered 
by  the  leaves,  separating  it  into  carbon  for 
the  plant  structure,  and  oxygen  to  be  re- 
turned to  the  atmosphere.  If  it  were  possi- 
ble to  spread  a  beam  of  sunlight  through 
one  large  prism,  as  is  now  done  by  using 
several  of  different  sizes  and  material,  we 
should  get  such  results  as  these,  the  slowest 
waves  being  refracted  least,  and  the  differ- 
ence in  effect  upon  the  senses  depending 
upon  the  length  of  the  wave,  or  what 
amounts  to  the  same  thing,  the  vibration 
frequency,  figure  17. 

Quite  likely,  higher  yet,  there  are  billions 


46  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

and  billions  more,  in  regions  where  the 
senses  are  dumb  and  the  imagination  grows 
dizzy. 

THROUGH  THE  BODY  TO  THE  BRAIN. 

But  the  old  bell  is  counting  off  another 
hour.  The  energy  of  the  hammer-stroke  is 
pushing  its  message  out  through  every  par- 
ticle of  the  vast  ocean  of  air,  but  neither  bell 
nor  air  may  speak.  Every  wave  receives 
potentially  a  voice  and  is  given  much  to  say, 
yet  all  are  mute.  Sound  waves  are  silent  as 
death.  We  have  taken  only  the  first  step 
towards  sound;  we  are  ready  for  the  next. 

In  the  sense  organs  and  their  accompany- 
ing trains  of  nerves  and  nerve  centres,  to 
which  we  now  turn  our  attention,  there  are 
most  wonderful  evidences  of  design.  The 
external  ear  is  useful  in  collecting  the  undu- 
lations, reinforcing  the  direct  ones  by  reso- 
nance, changing  the  direction  of  oblique  ones, 
and  conducting  those  which  have  been  ab- 
sorbed by  its  walls,  so  that  all  the  waves, 
with  more  or  less  distinctness,  may  reach  the 
ear  drum.  We  have  seen  that  the  vibrations 
from  the  bell  are  not  simply  the  two  hundred 


•^ittm^'—^'- '   iiMiiiriii  ,.*■   -  ■iiiiiin'w 


Fig.  18. 
BUT  THE  OLD  BELL  IS  COUNTING  OFF  ANOTHER  HOUR. 


rU*IVERSITY] 

;zfoV£^ 


THROUGH  THE  BODY  TO  THE  BRAIN.   49 

and  sixty-five  per  second  that  determine  the 
pitch  of  its  fundamental  tone,  but  that  with 
these  are  many  weaker  ones  which  so  modify 
the  form  of  the  waves  as  to  give  to  the  tone 
not  only  a  bell  quality,  but  a  quality  which 
may  enable  us  to  distinguish  this  particular 
Mtinster  bell  from  every  other  bell  ever  cast. 
The  ear  drum  is  prepared  to  meet  this  com- 
plex condition  of  undulations.  If  it  were  an 
evenly-stretched  membrane,  while  it  would 
respond  to  waves  corresponding,  or  nearly 
so,  with  its  own  very  high  rate  of  vibration, 
and  communicate  them  to  the  real  organ  of 
hearing  very  much  better  than  could  be 
done  from  the  air  pulses  direct,  yet  it  could 
not  repeat  waves  of  any  other  lengths.  There 
would  be  a  painful  monotony  in  the  sounds 
heard,  as  if  all  the  world  were  sawing  upon 
a  single  instrument,  and  that  of  only  a  single 
string.  But  the  ear  drum  is  stretched  in  its 
different  parts  and  weighted  to  a  great  num- 
ber of  tensions,  to  enable  it,  perhaps,  to 
respond  to  the  vast  variety  of  fundamental 
and  character  waves  which  make  up  our 
realm  of  sound.     The   ear  bones,  purposely 


50  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

insulated  from  the  bones  of  the  head,  and 
surrounded  by  air,  which  can  not  readily  rob 
them  of  their  motion,  communicate  these 
vibrations,  through  a  second  membrane,  to 
a  fluid,  from  which  they  are  readily  caught 
up  by  the  basilar  membrane,  or  the  syn- 
chronal  rods  of  about  three  thousand  differ- 
ently tuned  pairs,  and  repeated,  by  filaments 
of  the  auditory  nerve,  to  the  brain.  Yet  we 
have  not  answered  our  question,  because 
the  brain  is  matter,  and  matter  cannot  hear. 

But  we  must  for  the  moment  direct  our 
attention  to  other  and  even  more  admirable 
avenues  for  the  transmission  of  the  still 
more  rapid  waves,  to  which  we  have  re- 
ferred, through  the  body  to  the  brain. 

Undulations  too  rapid  to  affect  the  ear, 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  the  electrical  effects 
detected  by  the  Hertz  apparatus,  when  their 
vibration  frequency  has  reached  some  trill- 
ions to  the  second,  find  the  body  again 
thoroughly  equipped  to  receive  them.  Its 
entire  surface  is  thickly  set  with  delicate 
whirls  of  nerve  fibre,  which  are  the  terminal 
stations  of  myriad  lines  of  incarrying  nerves. 


THROUGH  THE  BODY  TO  THE  BRAIN.   5 1 

Though  usually  not  more  than  one  ten- 
thousandth  part  of  an  inch  in  diameter  and 
hundreds  of  millions  in  number,  they  are 
completely  insulated  from  one  another,  by 
individual  envelopes,  and  are  strung  unin- 
terruptedly from  their  terminals  to  the 
great  central  station,  the  brain,  or  to  some 
group  of  nerve  cells  which  may  act  as  a  re- 
peating station  to  the  brain.  Owing  to  the 
peculiar  structure  of  the  terminal  stations, 
messages  can  be  sent  in  only  the  one  direc- 
tion. There  can  be  no  confusion  of  trans- 
mission; every  terminal  office  with  tidings 
from  the  external  world  has  the  right  of 
way.  But  both  terminal  stations  and  nerves 
are  as  powerless  to  originate  messages  as 
are  a  system  of  telephones  and  the  wires 
connecting  them  with  a  telephone  exchange. 
In  the  present  instance  the  stimuli  are  ether 
waves,  from,  perhaps,  some  lively  coals  on 
the  grate,  or,  it  may  be,  from  the  dancing 
surface  of  the  sun,  and  as  waves  of  stimula- 
tion, are  forwarded  on  through  the  body  to 
the  brain.  From  them  we  derive  the  sensa- 
tion of  warmth. 


52  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

With  all  their  wonderful  delicacy,  how- 
ever, the  terminal  stations  of  the  sense  of 
Touch  can  not  respond  to  the  yet  more  rapid 
waves  of  energy  which  are  pushed  off  from 
the  surface  of  the  sun,  and  reflected  to  us 
from,  say,  a  distant  landscape.  These  vary, 
as  we  have  seen,  from  less  than  four  hun- 
dred trillions  to  more  than  eight  hundred 
trillions  per  second. 

Very  complex  and  minute  is  the  terminal 
expansion  of  this  most  wonderful  of  all 
mechanisms,  the  eye.  Here  is  work  to  be 
done.  The  curtains  are  drawn,  the  walls 
are  darkened,  and  in  its  most  sensitive  part 
the  many  protecting  layers  are  lifted  for  a 
space  of  about  one  twenty-fifth  of  an  inch, 
so  that  the  slender  cones  of  nerve  fibre  may 
be  untrammeled.  How  deftly  do  they  pick 
up  the  flying  waves!  some  strong  for  lights, 
others  weak  for  shades;  some  comparatively 
long  and  slow  for  mellow,  golden  tints  to 
yonder  dreamy  cloud;  while  more  sprightly 
ones  touch  blade  and  leaf  with  the  richest 
green,  and  others  brisker  yet  brush  in  the 
distant  mountain's  blue,  and  in  faintest  out- 


lines  the  countless  lovelier  cerulean  shades  of 
the  remoter  sky.  What  a  jargon  of  motions! 
And  yet  with  what  faultless  order  and  pre- 
cision are  they  all  repeated  to  the  brain! 

So  far  as  Science  is  yet  aware,  all  that 
we  know  of  the  external  world  (if  we  add 
Taste  and  Smell,  which  are  lower  orders 
of  sensation)  must  come  to  us  through  what 
I  may,  not  inappropriately,  call  the  Harp  of 
the  Senses. 

Thus  our  senses,  their  beautiful  adapta- 
tions Divinely  thought,  their  marvelous 
mechanisms  Divinely  wrought,  are  tuned, 
like  a  delicate  ^Eolian  Harp,  to  sympathetic 
vibration  with  some  part  at  least  of  the 
throbbing  universe.  Now  strong  and  slow, 
like  the  measured  tread  of  heaven's  storm 
battalions ;  now  swift  and  low,  with  the  hur- 
rying step  of  the  fleeing  star  as  she  touches 
the  dome  of  the  sky  and  is  lost  except  for 

"  The  beat  of  her  unseen  feet, 
Which  only  the  angels  hear.  " 

FROM  THE  BRAIN  TO  THE  EGO. 

We  have  followed  the  waves  produced  by 
the  bell  through  the  atmosphere  to  the  ear 


54  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

and  through  membrane,  bone,  fluid  and 
nerve  to  the  brain.  We  have  seen  that 
electric  waves,  heat  waves  and  light  waves 
are  transmitted  through  ether  to  the  appro- 
priate nerve  terminal  stations  of  the  body, 
and  that  from  them  waves  of  stimulation  are 
forwarded  to  the  brain.  But  they  are  waves 
still  —  a  mere  transference  of  energy  —  not 
tone,  nor  warmth,  nor  color.  We  insist 
that  back  of  and  over  all  this  material 
pantomime  there  is  an  immaterial,  responsi- 
ble, presiding  genius,  the  Ego,  who  possesses 
the  key  to  its  interpretation. 

What  the  key  is  we  do  not  know.  Many 
have  sought  long  and  diligently  for  it;  some 
have  believed  it  almost  within  their  grasp ; 
but  no  sane  person  has  ever  claimed 
certainly  to  have  found  it.  It  is  a  God -given 
possession  —  we  may  never  know,  in  this 
life,  what  it  is. 

The  lessons  which  follow  in  this  book  are 
based  upon  what  the  writer  believes  to  be 
the  sadly  ignored  fact,  that  in  the  forma- 
tion of  those  trains  of  enduring  subjective 
qualities    which  constitute  nobility  of  char- 


SOUND 


ELECTRICITY. 

HEAT. 
\      \     LIGHT,  COLOR. 
\      \     \         ACTINISM. 


Fig. 


UNKNOWN. 


ETHER. 

Vibrations  per 

Second. 

Maximum 

Chemical  Effect, 
650,000,000,000,000, 

Highest  Limit  of 
Vision, 
831,000,000,000,000. 

Lowest  Limit  of  Vision. 
395,000,000,000,000. 

Maximum  Radiant  Heat. 
129,000,000,000,000. 

Maximum  Electric  Waves, 
100,000,000. 


IN  AIR: 
Highest  Limit  of  Hearing,  30,000. 
"      Music,  4,000. 
"      Human  Voice,  1,500. 
Middle  C,  German  Pitch,  261. 
•.    Lowest  Limit  of  Human  Voice  61. 
"      Music,  32. 
"  "     Hearing  (?) 

ARP    OF    THE    SENSES. 


^A    OF  THE^>£ 

UHIVERSIT 


FROM    BRAIN    TO    EGO.  57 

acter,  the  Ego  is  not  always  the  autocrat 
that  enthusiasts  picture  him,  but  that  he 
is  subject  to  limitations  and  conditions  set 
for  him  in  the  laws  of  his  material  environ- 
ment. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CHARACTER    HAS  A    PHYSICAL  BASIS. 

"That  young  man  is  safe,"  said  a  minister 
to  me  recently,  with  more  than  ordinary 
satisfaction  indicated  in  his  voice  and 
expression.  The  young  man  to  whom  he 
referred  had  been  a  great  burden  upon  his 
soul  for  years,  and  had,  only  the  week 
before,  united  with  the  Church. 

"What  has  been  his  character  ?"     I  asked. 

"Wild,  very  reckless,  even  vicious;  and 
yet  he  has  great  ability.  We  had  almost 
despaired  of  reaching  him  ;  but,  thank  God, 
at  last  he  is  safe." 

"I  can  not  believe,"  I  replied,  "that  any 
one  under  such  circumstances  is  safe  until 
he  has  built  up  a  new  physical  basis  for  the 
changed  life  that  he  has  promised  to  lead." 

The  minister  looked  at  me  in  blank 
astonishment.  "Then,"  said  he,  almost 
hotly,   "You  limit  God's  power." 

Let  us  see.      There  are  limitations  for  me 

everywhere  in  nature.      I  let  go   my  pen ;   it 

58 


A    PHYSICAL    BASIS.  5Q 

falls.  Again  ;  again  it  falls.  I  try  a  knife,  a 
book,  anything;  always  the  same  result.  I  do 
not  doubt  that  God  could  have  made  them  go 
in  the  opposite  direction,  in  any  direction,  in 
all  directions  at  once  ;  but  He  has  not.  I  do 
not  limit  His  power;  if  there  are  limitations, 
He  has  set  them. 

There  are  limitations  of  body.  Step 
upon  the  platform  of  a  lifting-machine,  take 
hold  of  the  handle  and  do  your  best.  The 
index  touches  a  certain  figure.  By  careful 
training  you  may  crowd  your  record  up 
somewhat;  but  presently  you  reach  a  limit 
beyond  which  your  body  can  not  go.  You 
do  not  fix  that  limit,  it  is  fixed  for  you. 

There  are  limitations  in  mental  endow- 
ment. Very  near  my  window,  here  in  Mtin- 
ster  Platz,  stands  a  beautiful  statue  of 
Beethoven,  done  by  Hanel,  and  dedicated 
in  the  presence  of  Queen  Victoria.  How 
long  would  some  of  us  need  to  hammer  on 
a  piano  until  admiring  friends  would  do  us 
in  bronze  and  foreign  crowned  heads  come 
across  the  seas  to  assist  in  the  unveil- 
ing?    There  are  mental  limitations,  differ- 


60  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

ing  widely  often  in  the  same  family,  which 
neither  we  nor  our  parents  have  consciously 
placed,  and  which  no  doctrine  of  evolution 
has  explained. 

There  are  limitations  in  Christian  charac- 
ter. Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that 
there  are  character  limitations  in  the  Bible. 
With  what  consummate  skill  are  the  delinea- 
tions made.  Are  any  two  in  all  that  book 
quite  alike?  Peter,  James  and  John  had 
the  same  teachings  from  the  Savior,  the  same 
entrancing  influence  of  His  personal  pres- 
ence; and  all  were  eager  to  do  His  will: 
why  did  they  not  all  become  Peters  or 
Jameses  or  Johns?  And  why  was  Paul  pos- 
sessed of  magnificent  characteristics  not 
found  in  any  of  the  disciples? 

Where  may  you  turn  without  finding  that 
His  seal  has  been  set?  The  sea  hath  its 
thus  far  and  no  farther;  the  comet  its 
path;  the  universe  its  boundaries;  even  the 
soul,  at  least  while  in  the  body,  its  limita- 
tions. 

W^hen  I  say  that  any  person  whose  past 
life  has  been  alien  to  Him,  no  matter  how 


WHAT    IS    A    PHYSICAL    BASIS?  6 1 

sincere  the  repentance,  or  how  complete  the 
pardon,  must  build  a  new  physical  basis  be- 
fore he  can  safely  trust  his  steps  in  the  new 
way, — it   is   not   I   who   fix   the   limit. 

Our  peril  does  not  lie  nearly  so  much  in 
limiting  Divine  power  as  it  does  in  relying 
on  God  to  do  for  us,  in  some  mysterious 
way,  what  He  expects  us,  under  His  direc- 
tion, to  do  for  ourselves. 

WHAT    IS    A    PHYSICAL    BASIS? 

In  the  sense  here  intended,  certainly  not 
a  strongly  developed,  robust  body ;  the 
largest  ears  do  not  always  indicate  the 
greatest  sagacity.  Nor  do  we  mean,  how- 
ever desirable,  a  body  thoroughly  reliable 
in  the  performance  of  the  usual  bodily  func- 
tions; some  of  the  grandest  souls  have  lived 
in  quite  rickety  tenements. 

We  must  get  closer  to  the  soul  than  these. 

The  office  of  the  splendid  senses  of  Sight, 
Hearing,  and  one  form  of  Touch  has  been 
explained  in  the  preceding  chapter.  It  is 
to  gather  and  forward  to  the  brain  waves  of 
fruitful  energy  concerning  outlying  phe- 
nomena. 


62  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

The  sense  of  Touch  has,  besides  its  ability 
to  detect  waves  of  radiant  heat,  another 
special  nervous  development,  which  by  con- 
tact gives  us  very  important  knowledge  of  the 
form,  size,  surface  and  other  properties  of 
bodies;  and  closely  allied  to  it  are  the  nerves 
of  common  sensation,  such  as  hunger,  thirst, 
comfort,  discomfort  and  many  other  general 
or  localized  feelings  of  pleasure  or  pain. 

Two  other  senses,  Taste  and  Smell,  though 
of  a  much  inferior  order,  are  useful  in  giving 
us  some  further  knowledge  of  the  external 
world.  They  are  obviously  intended  to 
guard  the  digestive  and  respiratory  organs 
against  imposition;  but,  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Will,  they  are  too  often  perverted, 
like  other  Custom  House  officials,  to  serving 
their  own  interests  rather  than  those  of  their 
constituency. 

The  general  structure  for  receiving  all 
stimuli  and  reflecting  them  out  as  uncon- 
scious or  personally  directed  elements  of 
character  is  as  follows: 

First,  Terminal  nerve  stations  in  all  the 
sensory  surfaces. 


WHAT    IS    A    PHYSICAL    BASIS  ?  63 

Second,  In-carrying  nerves  connecting 
these  terminal  stations  to, 

Third,  The  lower  nerve  centers  of  the 
Spinal  Cord  and  the  higher  nerve  centers  of 
the  Brain. 

Fourth,  Out-carrying  nerves  from  these 
centers  to, 

Fifth,  The  terminal  stations  which  act 
directly  upon  the  muscles,  causing  contrac- 
tion, or  otherwise  influencing  the  activity  of 
the  parts  in  which  they  are  distributed. 

You  may  purposely  cause  a  wave  of  stimu- 
lation from  an  in-carrying  nerve  to  produce 
a  specified  brain  reaction,  wThich  shall  send 
a  wave  of  stimulation  along  a  specified  out- 
carrying  nerve,  requiring  a  specified  muscu- 
lar contraction  toward  the  purpose  in  view. 

But  having  once  plowed  through  this 
specified  round,  the  same  track  is  more 
easily  followed  a  second  time,  still  more  a 
third — and  so  on,  until  a  well  worn  path  is 
established  for  the  easy  accomplishment  of 
that  particular  purpose. 

It  is  not  inappropriate  to  call  such  a  well 
established  route  a  Trunk  Line. 


64  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

By  a  Physical  Basis,  then,  is  meant  the 
development  of  certain  Trunk  Lines  along 
which,  when  the  proper  stimulus  is  flashed, 
the  Soul  is  enabled  to  express  the  virtuous 
or  vicious  activities  which  constitute  the 
external  evidences  of  its  character. 

The  Physical  Basis  of  a  vicious  life  is  a 
network  of  such  Trunk  Lines,  in  which  the 
incarrying  waves  of  stimulation  waken  in  the 
soul  a  host  of  accustomed  activities,  such  as 
vile  memories,  alluring  imaginations,  craving 
appetites,  and  their  like,  having  well  worn 
routes  through  the  outcarrying  nerves  to 
whatever  lines  of  conduct  have  been 
followed  in  their  development. 

The  Physical  Basis  of  a  virtuous  life  is  a 
network  of  Trunk  Lines,  where  the  incoming 
waves  of  stimulation  on  reaching  the  cerebral 
hemispheres  of  the  brain,  find  there  well 
worn  tracks,  with  switches  already  set,  lead- 
ing to  the  God -given  higher  possessions 
of  the  Soul  —  holy  memories,  pure  imagi- 
nations, consecrated  ambitions,  righteous 
judgments,  and  a  Will,  whose  nerve 
connection    with    these    higher    faculties    is 


WHAT    IS    A    PHYSICAL    BASIS  ?  65 

so  perfect  that  at  once,  unless  the  line  of 
duty  present  complications  requiring  con- 
sideration, the  commands,  for  right  conduct 
are  flashed  out  through  the  outgoing  nerve 
tracks,  and  instantly  obeyed. 

Here  we  stand  face  to  face  with  a 
tremendous  physical  fact.  Every  voluntary 
act,  whether  of  good  or  evil,  beats  its  own 
path  a  little  smoother,  so  to  speak,  for 
another  of  like  character,  and  renders  it 
just  that  much  more  difficult  for  one  of 
opposite  nature  to  get  the  right  of  way. 
Every  day  that  we  live  deciding  against 
the  right  we  are  voluntarily  strengthening, 
with  our  own  blood,  meshes  of  our  own 
physical  organism  which  shall  presently 
bind  us,  body  and  soul,  wretched  slaves 
to  passions  and  appetites  of  our  own 
nurturing. 

It  can  not  be  stated  precisely  how 
these  Trunk  Lines  differ  from  others  of 
an  opposite'  character  that  might  have 
been  established  had  we  so  willed.  It 
would  be  unscientific  to  say  that  the  time 
will  never   come    when   the    laboratory    will 


66  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

reveal  such  differences  —  it  would  be  an 
epoch-making  revelation  —  but  that  time 
is  certainly  not  yet.  The  superior  sensitive- 
ness, however,  of  ready -formed  trunk 
lines  to  their  accustomed  stimuli  is  a  law 
beyond  peradventure,  and  its  power  over 
us  everywhere  except  in  the  areas  of 
right  and  wrong  is  clearly  recognized. 
Education  and  technical  expertness  are 
built  upon  it ;  but  in  morals  we  ignore  it, 
continuing  our  folly  on  the  assumption 
that  at  some  time,  in  some  mysterious 
way,  a  miraculous  interposition  will  turn 
the  dross  to  pure  gold. 

When  Dr.  Adam,  that  typical  pedagogue 
of  whom  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  his  boyhood 
was  so  fond,  was  upon  his  deathbed,  as 
the  shadows  of  the  dark  valley  thickened 
around  him  he  summoned  sufficient  strength 
to  say,  "It  grows  dark  — the  boys  may 
dismiss,"  and  expired.  Mahomet  says  a 
mountain  may  change  its  base,  but  not  a 
man  his  disposition. 

That  old  story  of  the  retired  English 
soldier  is  a    good    one,   because  we    recog- 


WHAT    IS    A    PHYSICAL    BASIS  ?  67 

nize  in  it  a  basis  of  possible  truth.  While 
walking  home  with  a  beefsteak  in  one 
hand  and  a  basket  of  eggs  in  the  other, 
a  wag  yelled,  "  Halt !  attention!"  In- 
stantly the  old  soldier  came  to  a  stand, 
and,  as  his  arms  assumed  the  position  of 
"  attention,"  meat  and  eggs  went  tumbling 
to  the  street.  The  Trunk  Lines  of  obedience 
to  orders  were  still  there.  It  is  quite  as 
possible  to  cultivate  a  physical  basis  for 
obeying  orders  from  an  infinitely  higher 
source  —  indeed,  until  we  do,  we  are  not 
trustworthy  Christian  soldiers.  I  do  not 
intend  by  any  means,  to  reduce  the  two 
kinds  of  service  to  the  same  area ;  for 
there  is  in  the  Christian  life  a  discriminat- 
ing element  that  does  not  obtain  in  any 
other  service. 

We  agree  that  any  one  who  has  spent 
his  earlier  years  in  one  vocation  can 
only  with  great  difficulty,  and  rarely 
successfully,  change  to  a  different  one 
later  in  life ;  yet  we  expect  him  who  has 
lived  in  sin  to  assume  the  character  of 
the  religious  life  with  the  ease  that  he 
might  slip  out  of  one  coat  into  another. 


68  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

This  is  a  serious  business.  It  is  too 
much  believed  and  too  much  preached, 
especially  by  some  ambitious  evangelists, 
when  the  soul  of  man  is  brought  under 
conviction  and  he  is  running  headlong  to 
ruin,  that  heaven  and  hell  are  merely 
stations  on  opposite  sides  of  us,  and  all 
we  need  to  do  if  we  are  walking  toward 
the  one  is  to  turn  about  and  walk  the 
other  way.  Once  forgiven  of  the  past 
and  faced  in  the  opposite  direction, 
there  is  no  need  for  further  concern. 
Walking  is  walking,  and  it  is  just  as 
easy  to  travel  one  way  as  another ;  we 
have  started,  God  will  do  the  rest.  Will 
he?  I  do  not  limit  His  power;  if  there 
are  limitations  He  has  set  them  —  and 
there  are  limitations. 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  unconcern 
that  we  too  often  feel,  and  the  personal 
responsibility  from  which  we  too  often  shrink 
towards  those  who  but  lately  have  decided 
to  cease  to  do  evil  and  learn  to  do  well. 
Once  enrolled  in  due  form,  they  are  turned 
out  among  their  old  associations  to  receive 


WHAT    IS    A    THYSICAL    BASIS  ?  69 

over  and  over  again  the  very  same  stimuli 
which  have  already  worn  broad  Trunk  Lines 
in  their  nervous  mechanism,  without  ever 
having  heard  that  they  have  before  them  a 
fearful  hand  to  hand  battle  against  the 
physical  basis  of  that  former  life.  Often 
have  I  seen  young  men  brought  into  the 
Church  with  flying  colors,  but  not  a  hint  as 
to  the  fearful  struggles  ahead  of  them. 
They  had  been  led  to  suppose  that  the  New 
Life  means  not  only  a  continuance  of  the 
present  ecstasy,  but  instant  release  from  all 
the  past.  They  soon  found  that  they  had 
terrific  battles  to  fight,  and,  being  utterly 
unwarned  and  consequently  unarmed,  they 
were  speedily  overthrown  and  repossessed — 
and  now  are  ready  to  declare  that  the 
Christian  life  is  a  tradition.  That  God  will 
in  every  conflict  give  us  the  power  to  resist 
the  demands  and  intrigues  of  that  physical 
basis  is  gloriously  true;  but  He  does  not 
fight  the  battles  for  us. 

It  is  an  enervating  philosophy,  that  when 
one  feels  the  touch  of  Divine  mercy  in  the 
forgiveness  of  his  sins  and  the  renewing  of 

fern" 


70  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

his  spirit,  from  that  moment  the  effect  of 
those  sins  upon  his  bodily  organism  becomes 
nil  and  need  give  him  no  further  concern. 
Prayerfully,  painfully,  persistently,  step  by 
step,  must  he  break  up  the  physical  basis  of 
his  former  life.  No  intelligent  person  will 
claim  that  conversion  changes  a  single  nerve 
fibre  or  nerve  cell.  The  old  ruts  are  there, 
and  their  office  is  painfully  apparent  to  the 
most  earnest  convert. 

Do  you  not  realize,  over  and  over  again, 
what  it  means  to  stand  in  the  pillory  of  your 
past  life  ?  'And  you  ought ;  you  built  that 
pillory.  When  I  hear  a  man,  alas,  some- 
times from  the  sacred  desk,  holding  his 
former  follies  up  for  the  amusement  of  the 
crowd,  even  jesting  upon  his  wickedness,  I 
feel  that  I  would  not  trust  him  alone  with 
my  boys  —  scarcely  with  my  property.  There 
is  nothing  in  sin  of  which  to  be  proud. 

Do  you  not  know  what  it  is ,  years  after 
you  had  supposed  that  every  vestige  of  your 
former  life  had  been  choked  out,  to  have 
some  noxious  weed  of  that  former  sowing 
spring  up,  aye,  in  the  very  midst  of  a  garden 


WHAT    IS    A    PHYSICAL    BASIS?  7 1 

of  roses  ?  And  it  is  natural ;  whatsoever  a 
man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap.  To  be 
sure,  the  weed  sprang  up  unbidden  —  the 
stimuli  had  merely  flashed  over  the  old  lines 
—  and  you  may  not  now  be  held  accounta- 
ble, except  where  in  developing  those  lines, 
at  present  so  hateful,  you  assisted  in  building 
similar  physical  bases  for  other  souls  now 
gone  beyond  the  reach  of  your  changed 
influence.  Even  if  it  could  be  shown,  which 
is  hazardous,  that  you  are  relieved  from 
any  further  responsibility  touching  the  doings 
of  that  former  influence,  its  results  are  facts 
which  must  be  faced  by  some  one. 

It  is  not  God  who  scatters  these  weeds 
among  the  roses,  and  it  is  cowardly  to 
charge  them  upon  Satan ;  they  are  the 
legitimate  results  of  our  own  evil  doing. 

"Let  no  man  say  when  he  is  tempted,  I 
am  tempted  of  God :  for  God  can  not  be 
tempted  with  evil,  and  he  himself  tempteth 
no  man  :  but  every  man  is  tempted  when  he 
is  drawn  away  by  his  own  lust  and  enticed." 

We  have  thus  far  seen  that  we  are  both 
spirit  and  body,  and   that  the  one  must  lean 


72  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

heavily  upon  the  other;  for  although  the 
body  is  only  matter  and  in  no  sense  an 
entity,  there  exists  between  it  and  the  soul 
an  interdependence  which  can  not  be  ex- 
plained and  yet  must  not  be  ignored. 

The  problem  yet  to  be  discussed  is,  how 
we  may  best  require  the  body  to  be  servant 
and  not  master ;  for  the  soul  that  is  slave  to 
its  body  loses  the  best  of  life,  and  all  of 
eternity. 


CHAPTER    III. 

TWO    LIVES    IN    ONE. 

Society  is  kind  to  her  daughters;  to  her 
sons,  cruel.  She  surrounds  her  girls  with  a 
thousand  safeguards;  she  sets  for  her  boys  a 
thousand  snares.  What  wonder  then  that 
her  young  maidens,  day  by  day,  are  almost 
unconsciously  growing  purer,  and  that  her 
young  men  must  struggle  for  every  foot  of 
vantage  ground  that  they  obtain.  Society 
chaperons  her  lassies;  her  lads  she  pushes 
out  to  learn  the  world  alone.  (See  Frontis- 
piece.) But  society  is  unwise.  The  brother 
is  in  greater  need  of  a  guardian  than  the 
sister.  She  may  travel  from  London  to  San 
Francisco,  unattended,  and  not  see  a  dis- 
agreeable sight  nor  hear  an  offensive  word. 
Should  her  brother  undertake  the  same 
journey,  he  would  be  expected,  aye,  required 
to  breathe  an  atmosphere  of  quite  another 
sort. 

"But  he  must  learn  the  world  in  order 
presently  to  be  able  to  contend  against  it," 


74  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

society  explains.  There  is  no  justice  in  the 
plea,  because  it  is  based  upon  what  is  —  not 
upon  what  should  be.  If  you  wish  your  son 
to  do  business  in  your  warehouse  and  there 
are  vipers  there,  do  you  send  him  abroad  to 
get  a  blow  from  every  venomous  serpent 
that  he  can  find,  by  way  of  inoculation? 
Here  is  where  society  makes  her  great, 
often  her  fatal,  mistake.  She  attempts  to 
inoculate  vice  with  vice — it  would  be  easier 
to  quench  flame  with  tinder. 

SOWING    WILD    OATS. 

Just  before  leaving  the  States  a  lady  was 
telling  me  of  her  brother.  He  had  been 
allowed  a  taste  of  evil,  liked  it,  and  was 
learning  to  live  upon  it.  "  But  it  will  come 
out  all  right,"  she  said,  almost  gaily;  "  my 
brother  will  turn  about  presently  and  be  all 
the  better  for  the  experience.  Boys  must 
sow  their  wild  oats,  you  know?' 

Why  does  society  insist  that  boys  must 
sow  their  wild  oats?  There  is  no  legerde- 
main about  life.  There  is  no  way  to  sow 
vice  and  reap  virtue,  any  more  than  there  is 
to  sow  tares  and  reap  wheat. 


SOWING    WILD    OATS.  75 

An  eccentric  old  minister  used  to  say  with 
an  air  of  evident  pride,  "  My  boys  always  go 
to  the  devil  first  before  they  come  around  to 
the  Lord."  This  curious  anomaly  is  so  fre- 
quent that  it  has  become  commonplace.  In- 
deed, we  do  not  put  it  too  strongly  in  saying 
that  society  expects  her  sons  in  their  youth 
to  sow  the  wind,  assuming  that  God  will  sus- 
pend His  laws  so  that  they  shall  not  reap  the 
whirlwind. 

Rudyard  Kipling,  in  the  third  of  his 
"  Plain  Tales  from  the  Hills,"  champions  the 
view  society  takes  thus: 

"  Let  a  puppy  eat  the  soap  in  the  bath- 
room or  chew  a  newly-blacked  boot.  He 
chews  and  chuckles  until,  by  and  by,  he  finds 
out  that  blacking  and  Old  Brown  Windsor 
make  him  very  sick;  so  he  argues  that  soap 
and  boots  are  not  wholesome.  Any  old  dog 
about  the  house  will  soon  show  him  the  un- 
wisdom of  biting  big  dogs'  ears.  Being 
young,  he  remembers,  and  goes  abroad  at 
six  months  a  well-mannered  little  beast  with 
a  chastened  appetite.  If  he  had  been  kept 
away  from  boots  and  soap  and  big  dogs  till 


j6  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

he  came  to  the  trinity  full-grown  and  with 
developed  teeth,  just  consider  how  fearfully 
sick  and  thrashed  he  would  be." 

This  may  be  a  very  deep  philosophy  for 
puppies,  but  young  men  are  not  puppies. 

The  attempted  analogy  is  painfully  mis- 
leading. If  the  early  effects  of  sin  were 
always  as  nauseating  as  the  eating  of  black- 
ing and  soap  the  wisdom  of  turning  a  boy 
loose  to  taste  until  he  has  developed  a 
" chastened  appetite"  would  remain  ques- 
tionable, for  it  is  possible  to  develop  a 
craving  for  poison.  But  as  everyone  who 
has  seen  the  world  for  himself  too  well 
knows,  many,  perhaps  most  of  his  youth- 
ful experiences  with  sin  were  delightfully 
exhilarating,  possessing  a  snap  and  an 
abandon  which  come  up  to  the  high  water 
mark  in  a  boy's  calendar  of  fun. 

Does  society  consider  that  a  physical  basis 
for  vice  once  formed  must  be  carried  to  the 
end  of  life?  It  may  be  repented  of,  aye,  in 
sackcloth  and  ashes;  the  life  that  developed 
it  may  be  forgiven.;  and  under  Divine  direc- 
tion—  there  is  no  other  way  —  the  physical 


SOWING    WILD    OATS.  J 7 

basis  of  a  true  life  may  be  built;  but  that  new 
life  can  never  become  what  it  would  have 
been  if  those  Trunk  Lines  of  vice  had  never 
been  formed. 

Somewhere  I  have  heard,  or  seen,  that  the 
old  life  would  be  "buried  in  the  grave  of 
God's  forgetfulness."  Beautiful  expression, 
isn't  it?  If  it  were  true,  the  sowing  of  wild 
oats  might  be  only  a  harmless  diversion,  and 
society  might  not  be  so  unjust  to  her  sons 
in  encouraging  it.  But  the  young  man  who 
attempts  to  fling  off  that  former  life  will  find 
to  his  sorrow  that  there  is  no  grave  for 
nerve-fibre  and  cell  until  his  soul  has  entirely 
cut  loose  from  its  bodily  anchorage. 

My  boyhood  home  was  not  far  south  of 
the  great  chain  of  North  American  Lakes. 
Our  fuel  was  poles  cut  from  a  neighboring 
tamarac  swamp.  It  was  my  business,  after 
they  had  been  brought  to  our  yard,  to  saw 
them  to  proper  length  for  the  stoves. 
They  were  long  and  slick  and  hard  to  hold. 
One  morning  when  I  was  in  a  hurry  to  be 
off  fishing,  they  seemed  to  be  especially 
aggravating.     Getting  the  saw  fast,  I  jerked 


yS  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

about  until  finally  I  plunged  the  teeth  some 
distance  into  one  of  my  feet,  making  an  ugly 
gash.  My  father  saw  the  exhibition  of  my 
temper,  but  wisely  said  nothing  until  I  had 
finished  my  work  and  my  passion  had  sub- 
sided.    Then  he  called  me  to  him. 

"John,"  said  he,  very  kindly  —  he  never 
spoke  to  me  in  any  other  way  —  "  I  wish  you 
would  get  the  hammer." 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  Now  a  nail  and  a  piece  of  pine  board 
from  the  woodshed." 

11  Here  they  are." 

"Will  you  drive  the  nail  into  the  board?" 

It  was  done. 

"  Please  pull  it  out  again." 

"  That's  easy." 

"  Now,  John,"  and  my  father's  voice 
dropped  to  a  lower,  sadder  key,  "  pull  out 
the  nail  hole." 

While,  of  course,  I  saw  the  application  to 
my  fit  of  anger,  I  did  not  then  understand 
as  I  do  now  how  every  wrong  act  leaves  a 
scar.  There  is  no  power  to  pull  the  nail 
holes  out.     Even  if  the  board  were  a  living 


FALLEN    BY    THE    WAY.  7Q 

tree,  yea,  a  living  soul,  the  scars  remain 
—  the  old  nerve  tracks,  the  physical  basis  of 
the  former  sins. 

FALLEN    BY    THE    WAY. 

But  there  are  results  more  serious  than 
scars. 

Early  in  the  lives  of  all  of  us  there  come 
the  drawings  of  the  Spirit,  whisperings  of  a 
better  life  that  may  be  ours  if  we  will  put 
our  trust  in  Him.  But  with  so  much  of 
precept  and  example  on  the  other  side,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  many  a  boy  concludes 
that  no  harm  can  come  of  shutting  his  ears 
to  that  gentle  Voice  until  he  has  dipped  a 
little  way  into  what  are  termed,  apologeti- 
cally, the  follies  of  youth.  If  the  Spirit 
continue  to  strive  and  he  should  yield  to 
the  yearnings  from  the  kingdom  within  be- 
fore any  very  definite  combinations  of  nerve 
tracks  for  vice  are  formed,  he  may  find  him- 
self less  physically  handicapped  ;  but  the  law 
of  the  sinful  development  which  he  has  thus 
deliberately  begun  is  that  he  shall  grow 
more  and  more  unwilling  to  listen  to  that 
still    small    voice    and    less    and    less    able, 


cSo  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

should  he  once  more  attend,  to  hold  himself 
under  its  influence  until  new  nerve  tracks 
are  worn  as  a  physical  embodiment  of  the 
changed  life. 

I  can  not  expect  all  my  readers  to 
agree  with  me  in  this  statement ;  but  the 
test  of  its  truth  or  falsity  must  rest  in 
experience.  I  ask  any  candid  objector  to 
apply  it  among  young  men  who  have  begun 
the  Christian  life  under  these  conditions, 
and  discover  for  himself  whether  or  not  it 
be  true.  Why  does  even  Paul  cry  out,  "I 
find  then  the  law,  that  to  me  who  would  do 
good,  evil  is  present.  For  I  delight  in  the 
law  of  God  after  the  inward  man  :  but  I  see 
a  different  law  in  my  members,  warring 
against  the  law  in  my  mind,  and  bring  me 
unto  captivity  unto  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in 
my  members.  O  wretched  man  that  I  am  ! 
Who  shall  deliver  me  out  of  the  body  of 
this  death  ?" 

Many  expressions,  heard  over  and  over 
from  young  Christians,  yes,  even  from  those 
who  are  much  older  in  the  religious  life, 
find    their    explanation    here. 


GOOD    SAINT,    GOOD    SINNER.  8 1 

This  law  is  especially  applicable  to  those 
who  have  fallen  by  the  way ;  and  one  is 
appalled  when  he  considers  how  many  such 
there  are.  , 

We  just  here  reach  the  point  where  I  can 
but  feel  that  most  Christian  workers  make  a 
serious  mistake.  It  would  not  be  wise  to 
attempt  to  say  in  how  far  the  responsibility 
for  those  who  have  fallen  by  the  way  can  be 
laid  at  the  door  of  the  Church  ;  but  it  is 
certainly  a  fact  that  the  physical  basis 
already  formed  by  the  young  convert's 
previous  life  is  not  taken  enough  into  con- 
sideration. True,  the  work  is  God's,  but  we 
must  fulfill  the  conditions. 

GOOD    SAINT,    GOOD    SINNER. 

No  one  can  be  better  than  his  best 
thoughts,  and  good  thoughts,  as  well  as  bad 
ones,  must  have  a  physical  basis.  That  both 
combinations  do  exist  to  a  certain  extent  in 
the  same  individual  is  a  matter  of  common 
experience ;  but  the  good  can  not  become 
ingrained  while  there  is  any  voluntary  ten- 
dency to  the  evil.  Among  those  who  are 
counted  as  not  having  fallen  by  the  way  are 


82  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

many  —  more  than  one  at  first  glance  is 
willing  to  allow  —  who  are  trying  to  hold  to 
some  of  their  inherent  or  acquired  tastes  for 
stimuli  of  a  more  or  less  sinful  nature  and 
at  the  same  time  reap  the  benefits  of 
Christian  culture.  They  are  in  form  and 
sentiment  in  sympathy  with  the  Church,  but 
are  destitute  of  spiritual  power,  for  the 
Spirit  will  not  abide  where  there  is  a  lurking 
willingness  in  the  soul  to  be  fed  through  the 
old  channels.  They  are  in  almost  every 
congregation  —  sometimes  in  a  majority. 
They  seem  to  enjoy  the  service  while  en- 
gaging in  it,  but  it  takes  no  abiding  hold  on 
them  because  they  have  no  prayerfully 
formed  combinations  of  nerve  tracks  to  em- 
body it.  Preaching  to  them  is  like  flinging 
pebbles  into  a  placid  pool  for  the  pleasure 
of  watching  the  answering  waves  form,  fade 
and  die.  Christianity  does  not  consist  in 
the  observance  of  forms,  nor  in  certificates 
of  membership  —  it  must  be  embodied. 
Neither  does  one  leap  into  the  physical 
basis  of  a  well  rounded  Christian  character, 
nor   out   of    it,   hastily.      Sometimes  society 


GOOD    SAINT,    GOOD    SINNER.  83 

holds  her  breath  at  the  recital  of  the  sudden 
fall  of  a  favorite,  and  exclaims,  "How  is  it 
possible  ?  Yesterday  so  good,  to-day  so 
vile!"  It  is  not  possible.  Either  the  good- 
ness was  assumed  or  the  vileness  is  a 
slander.  The  history  of  such  instances 
when  true  will  invariably  indicate  months, 
possibly  years,  of  development  shrewdly 
concealed  from  the  public  ear.  It  is  merely 
a  reaping  of  one's  own  sowing.  1 

You  can  count  numbers  of  your  personal 
friends  from  whom  such  villainy  would  be 
impossible.  They  have  learned  to  be  com- 
pletely led  of  Him.     They  are   established. 

It  is  often  claimed  by  conscientious 
persons  that  there  are  no  time  limits  with 
God,  that  he  can  change  the  vilest  sinner 
into  the  most  perfect  saint  in  a  moment, 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  That  God 
could  do  so  is  beyond  question.  If  there 
are  limitations,  He  has  placed  them. 
Suppose  a  confirmed  inebriate,  with  all 
the  Trunk  Lines  trained  to  inflame  and 
obey  his  passion  for  drink,  is  genuinely 
converted.       Do    you    send    him    back    to 


84  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

his  favorite  dens  with  the  same  confidence 
in  his  stability  that  you  would  have  in  a  staid 
member  of  your  Church?  The  odor  of  a 
single  saturated  cork  may  set  that  poor 
fellow's  brain  on  fire. 

It  takes  time  to  build  character,  because 
it  takes  time  to  build  new  channels 
through  which  that  forgiven  soul  may 
hear  and  see  and  feel  and  act.  We  do 
not  fix  the  limits,  but  they  are  fixed. 

One  who  has  had  the  opportunity  of 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  same 
Christian  people  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  can  not  fail  to  have  noticed  how 
their  growth  has  been  like  the  blade, 
then  the  ear,  then  the  ""full  corn  in  the 
ear.  Many  times  they  are  themselves 
unconscious  of  it  and  insist  otherwise, 
but  a  careful  observer  will  find  abundant 
evidence  that  it  has  been  so. 

''Therefore  if  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is 
a  new  creature." 

Did  you  ever  notice  that  the  words  "he 
is"  are  inserted?  and  that  the  best  author- 
ities agree  in  reading  "let  him  be?" 


nOW    LONG    MAY    YOU    BE    MASTER?  85 

Therefore   if  any  man  be   in   Christ,  let 
him  be  a  new  creature." 

HOW    LONG    MAY    YOU    BE    MASTER  ? 

Back  in  the  literature  of  childhood  is  a 
story  which  runs  somewhat  as  follows  : 

A  prince  who  was  a  great  trencherman 
was  one  day  seated  at  his  sumptuously 
loaded  dinner-table,  when  a  little  fly  came 
leisurely  in  through  an  open  window  of  the 
palace.  He  could  easily  have  destroyed  it, 
but  delighted  with  the  iridescence  of  its 
wings,  he  called  his  courtiers  to  see  it  as  it 
daintily  sipped  at  the  wine. 

The  next  day  it  came  again,  but  was 
now  as  large  as  a  butterfly,  and  it  drank 
quite  heavily.  "Do  not  disturb  it.  Its 
wings  are  more  beautiful,"  said  the  Prince, 
"there  is  wine  enough  for  both  of  us;" 
and  it  zig-zagged  its  way  out  of  the  window 
and  was  forgotten. 

On  the  following  day  it  came,  now  quite 
as  large  as  a  bat,  and  drank  all  of  the  wine. 
"This  will  not  do;  I  shall  die  of  thirst;'' 
and  the  Prince  ordered  the  palace  windows 
closed  and  all  of  the  doors  shut. 


86  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

But  at  the  same  hour  on  the  fourth  day 
there  was  a  shattering  of  glass  and  a 
great  fluttering  of  wings,  and  the  fly, 
now  grown  to  be  as  large  as  a  hawk, 
not  only  emptied  the  wine  goblets,  but 
greedily  snapped  up  all  of  the  feast  that 
had  been  set.  "What  shall  I  do?"  cried 
the  starving  Prince.  "Make  fast  the 
windows,  place  the  iron  shutters,  and  fix 
the  iron  bars,  so  that  I  may  eat  and  drink 
and  not  die." 

When  all  was  done  and  dinner  was 
again  made  ready,  there  was  heard  the 
twisting  of  iron  bars,  the  slamming  of 
iron  shutters,  the  crashing  of  glass,  and 
screams  of  terror  and  of  pain  from  the 
Prince ;  but  when  the  attendants  rushed 
in  they  found  him  prone  upon  the  floor; 
there  were  marks  about  his  throat  of 
beak  and  talons  as  of  a  vulture,  and  the 
Prince  was  dead. 

At  first  he  was  independent,  at  last  he 
was  helpless.  He  could  have  killed  the 
little  fly,  but  weakened  by  hunger  and  thirst, 
he   was   an  easy  victim  when,  from  his  own 


HOW  LONG  MAY  YOU  BE  MASTER?     87 

table,  the  fly  had  grown  to  be  as  strong  as  a 
vulture. 

How  long  might  he  safely  let  it  grow  ? 

This  is  a  question  that  young  people  often 
ask.  Society  fixes  limits,  sometimes  at  one 
place,  sometimes  at  another  —  all  artificial, 
all  dangerous.  How  long  may  one  risk  the 
development  of  a  physical  basis  of  evil  and 
yet  escape  ?  It  is  like  asking  how  far  one 
may  push  into  a  pestilential  swamp  and  be 
certain  not  to  succumb  to  its  poisons.  Every 
inward  step  not  only  must  be  painfully 
retraced,  but  lessens  the  chances  of  his  ever 
planting  foot  on  solid  ground  or  breathing 
pure  air  again. 

We  do  not  deny  the  possibility  of  death- 
bed repentance,  we  dare  not  do  so;  yet  it 
would  certainly  be  an  assumption  to  insist 
that  he  who  goes  into  eternity  after  a  worse 
than  wasted  life  of  sin  can  reap  the  reward 
of  righteous  living.  We  are  here  to  build 
character  for  eternity.  Will  God  do  for  us 
what  He  has  placed  us  here  to  do  under  His 
guidance  for  ourselves  ? 

Besides,  what  assurance  have  we  that  He 


88  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

will  always  chide,  or  that  His  spirit  will 
hover  ever  near  ?  It  is  dangerous  to  assume 
that  even  in  this  life  one  may  not  hear  that 
terrific  sentence,  ''And  he  that  is  filthy  let 
him  be  filthy  still." 

WHEN    DOES    RESPONSIBILITY    CEASE? 

When  the  Miinster  bell  counts  off  the 
hour,  you  can  not  get  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  vibrations  which  it  sends  out.  They 
may  be  much  too  faint  to  be  caught  by  the 
ear,  but  some  delicate  reflecting  apparatus 
will  prove  that  they  live  long  after  the 
hammer  has  ceased  its  stroke. 

Near  the  rapids  above  St.  Goar,  on  the 
Rhine,  in  a  little  salmon  boat,  one  quiet 
morning,  I  snapped  a  cap.  The  sound 
waves  circled  out,  striking  the  rocky  face  of 
the  mystic  Lorelei  and  back  to  me,  then  on 
to  the  imposing  cliffs  of  the  opposite  bank 
and  back,  over  and  over  again.  So  at  St. 
Paul's,  London,  the  Picton  Library  of 
Liverpool,  and  many  other  places,  sound 
waves  that  in  the  open  air  would  be  quite 
too  faint  to  be  heard  are  returned  with 
marked  distinctness.     A  pebble  thrown  into 


WHEN    DOES    RESPONSIBILITY    CEASE?        89 

a  calm  lake  starts  a  series  of  concentric 
waves  which  move  outward  to  the  shore,  are 
reflected  ;  then  out  again,  and  back  ;  out  and 
back;  many,  many  times  after  they  have 
ceased  to  be  visible. 

It  is  a  physical  law,  the  foundation  stone 
of  physical  science,  and  one  of  the  most 
profound  discoveries  of  this  century,  that 
energy  is  never  destroyed. 

We  may  not  speak  with  equal  confidence 
of  the  results  of  one's  personal  influence 
over  others,  for  there  are  numerous  unde- 
termined factors  in  every  life  ;  but  there  are 
many  evidences  of  the  continuing  effects  of 
both  virtue  and  vice  long  after  their  ultimate 
causes  have  ceased  to  exist. 

One  does  not,  one  can  not, undo  the  effects 
of  former  evil  influences  upon  others.  The 
circles  of  those  influences  widen  indefinitely 
—  perhaps  to  eternity.  The  risks  that  one 
runs  are  not  alone  from  the  evil  effects  in  him- 
self, but  he  becomes  responsible  for  their  con- 
sequences to  others.  Are  you  sure  that  this 
responsibility  ever  ceases  ?  It  is  a  fearful 
thing  to  begin  to  build  a  physical  basis  of  evil. 


QO  SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

A  king  once  wanted  a  charioteer.  Several 
anxious  applicants  presented  themselves. 
"How  close  to  the  edge  of  yon  precipice 
can  you  drive  ?"  demanded  the  king  of  the 
first. 

"Within  the  length  of  a  foot,  Sire,  and  at 
full  gallop." 

"And  I,"  exclaimed  the  second,  "can 
drive  within  a  hand's  breadth." 

"I  think,  Sire,  that  I  can  lap  the  outer 
tires,  half  on  the  edge  of  the  rock  and  half 
over  the  precipice,"  eagerly  replied  the 
third. 

"And  you  ?"  inquired  the  king  of  one  who 
had  thus  far  said  nothing. 

"Sire,  if  I  were  your  charioteer,"  he 
answered  calmly,  "  I  should  drive  as  far  from 
the  edge  as  the  roadway  would  allow." 

"You  are  my  charioteer,"  was  the  quick 
reply  of  the  wise  king. 

If  Society  instead  of  exposing  her  boys 
to  a  thousand  temptations,  would  keep  evil 
just  as  far  as  possible  away  from  them,  she 
would  be  doing  her  duty  towards  her  sons. 
They  have  a  right  to  demand  that  they  be 


WHEN    DOES    RESPONSIBILITY    CEASE  t        QI 

brought  to  their  majority  with  sound  nerve 
tracks,  just  as  their  sisters  are.  It  is  idle  to 
argue  that  such  a  course  would  make  them 
morally  weak.  But  if,  as  society  holds, 
breathing  an  immoral  atmosphere  tends 
to  make  boys  morally  strong,  turn  the  girls 
out  too ;  they  have  an  equal  right  to  insist 
upon  the  best  method  for  the  ingraining  of 
moral  stamina. 

There  are  many  sorrows  in  this  life.  Some 
are  necessary,  but  most  of  them  could 
have  been  prevented.  To  those  clouds  that 
must  needs  be  God  always  sets  a  silver  lining, 
but  those  of  our  own  overhanging  are  not 
thus  enframed.     They  are  the  results  of  sin. 


CHAPTER     IV. 

AN    INKLING    OF    THE    WHOLE    TRUTH. 

We  have  seen  that  all  our  intelligence 
from  things  external  to  us  must  come  through 
the  senses ;  but  sensations  are  not  knowledge. 
Likewise,  sensations  are  necessary  to  all 
our  feelings  of  pleasure  and  pain ;  but  sen- 
sation is  not  emotion.  So,  too^.  voluntary 
action  is  dependent  upon  sensation  ;  but  sen- 
sation is  not  conduct.  Much  less  is  sensation 
character,  which  is,  in  a  sense,  a  resultant  of 
knowledge,  emotion  and  conduct. 

To  claim  that  sensations  can  of  their  own 
accord  ever  grow  into  Christian  character  is 
like  saying  that  sand,  potash  and  lime  can 
unaided  grow  into  the  object  glass  of  a  tele- 
scope. The  soul  must  select  and  apportion 
the  sensations  into  definite  combinations, 
but  God  alone  can  fuse  them  into  crystal 
purity. 

There  are  persons  who  have  put  them- 
selves so  thoroughly  under  the  guidance  of 
the    Holy   Spirit   that   any   sensation   which 


Fig.  20. 
AN  INKLING  OF  THE  WHOLE  TRUTH. 


OF   THE 


JHIVEKDIT 


^ 


AN    INKLING    OF    THE    WHOLE    TRUTH.       95 

suggests  intentional  wrong  doing  is  instantly 
banished.  This  statement  is  not  invalidated 
by  the  fact  that  some  may  pose  as  Christians 
whose  lives  will  not  bear  scrutiny.  One 
must  not  hastily  conclude  that  God's  influ- 
ence on  the  soul  is  an  assumption,  because 
some  do  wear  the  Christian  garb  without 
any  more  knowledge  of  its  spirit  than  the 
beggar  under  my  window  at  this  moment 
possesses  of  the  inspiration  in  the  "  Home, 
Sweet  Home"  which  he  is  grinding  out  of 
his  hand-organ.  Remember  rather  those 
who  have  so  grown  into  the  character  of 
the  Divine — and  there  are  many  such — that 
their  every  word  and  deed,  aye,  even  the 
radiance  of  their  countenances,  is  unmistak- 
able evidence  of  the  indwelling  spirit.  They 
are  well  upon  God's  holy  mountain.  Their 
souls  can  catch  much  of  the  sunlight  of 
heaven  and  many  a  mellow  cadence  from 
the  celestial  harmonies.  They  are  kept  in 
perfect  peace  because  their  minds  are  stayed 
on  Him. 

Farthest    removed   from   these   are  some 
who   seem    to    have    buried    utterly    every 


q6        secret  of  character  building. 

desire  to  be  led  of  God.  They  are  in  the 
deepest  shadow,  at  the  very  bottom  of  the 
grade. 

Scattered  between  these  two  extremes 
are  all  the  rest  of  us,  with  more  or  less 
of  unevenness  of  step  and  uncertainty  of 
purpose. 

The  problem  is,  how  to  get  us  all 
resolutely  and  uncompromisingly  climbing 
heavenward. 

God  could  lift  us  instantly  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest  area,  and  with  those  who 
claim  that  He  does  do  so  we  rejoice;  but  as 
a  matter  of  common  experience,  the  most  of 
us  find  ourselves  possessed  of  certain  physical 
limitations  to  which  we  are  subject,  and  up- 
on which  our  progress  is  conditioned.  If  you 
want  a  proper  razor,  you  have  it  made  at 
Sheffield  and  hollow-ground  in  Germany. 
It  does  not  answer  to  bring  the  grinder  to 
Sheffield  or  to  send  the  forger  to  Germany. 
No  one  has  told  just  why  or  how,  but  some 
unexplained  physical  conditions  are  met  by 
the  combination.  Alvan  Clark  ground  the 
famous     fifty -one -thousand -dollar     object- 


AN    INKLING    OF    THE    WHOLE    TRUTH        97 

glass  of  the  Lick  Observatory  telescope 
which  has  added  another  moon  to  the  body- 
guard of  Jupiter,  but  the  casting  of  the  block 
of  glass  had  to  be  done  in  France.  It  is  not 
for  want  of  manipulative  skill  in  American 
glass  factories — no  one  explains  the  exact 
conditions,  but  there  are  conditions. 

Quite  frequently  such  marked  innate  dif- 
ferences in  conditions,  ready-formed  Trunk 
Lines,  exist  between  two  brothers  that  it 
would  be  manifestly  unjust  to  require  of  both 
the  same  degree  of  excellence.  A  fixed 
standard  might  level  them  down,  but  not  up. 
God  does  not  require  any  of  us  in  our 
struggle  heavenward  to  keep  exact  step  with 
any  one  else;  nor  is  it  practicable  for  us  all 
to  reach  the  same  level.  There  are  heights 
above  the  highest  possible  attainment,  and 
every  upward  step  reveals  still  grander 
heights  beyond. 

But  by  far  the  greater  part  of  our  physical 
limitations  are  self-imposed;  that  is,  are  well 
worn  nerve  and  nerve-centre  tracks  of  our 
own  making.  These  should  give  us  the 
greatest  concern. 


q8        secret  of  character  building. 

I  have  seen  two  young  men  standing  side 
by  side  on  the  sea-shore  with  equal  oppor- 
tunities for  sense  perceptions.  One  of  them 
possessed  carefully  developed  Trunk  Lines 
and  connections,  along  which  stimuli  were 
ever  discovering  to  him  reserves  of  enno- 
bling emotions  and  consecrated  ambitions. 
The  other  young  man,  though  not  vicious, 
had  given  himself  over  to  a  life  of  idle 
amusement.  They  both  breathed  in  the 
exhilarating  air  of  the  inspiring  situation. 

"  See,"  said  the  first,  "  how  plainly  sky 
and  beach  and  rolling  wave  speak  to  us  of 
God's  infinite  power  and  his  abundant  mer- 
cies. Life  is  worth  living  only  when  we  are 
in  perfect  accord  with  " — 

"  Right  over  there,"  said  the  other,  with- 
out hearing  what  his  friend  was  saying,  "  in 
that  second  cove  would  be  a  tip-top  place  to 
job  for  eels." 

The  stimuli  were  precisely  the  same.  In 
one  nervous  mechanism  they  found  tracks 
ready  laid,  switches  set  to  a  great  number  of 
concatenated  nerve  centres  unveiling  a 
whole  picture  gallery  of  elevating  imagery. 


AN    INKLING    OF    THE    WHOLE    TRUTH.       99 

To  the  other  all  that  higher  beauty  was 
lost. 

In  some  people  the  most  magnificent 
stimuli  can  waken  no  higher  intellectuality 
than  a  pun;  while  there  are  others,  the  least 
disturbance  of  whose  nerve  centres,  no  mat- 
ter how  sacred  the  source,  pushes  out  some 
coarse  jest  or  profane  utterance. 

These  types  of  character  are  the  results 
of  voluntary  thoughts  and  expressions  so 
often  repeated  that  they  have  become  in 
a  measure  reflex ;  that  is,  Trunk  Lines 
have  become  so  thoroughly  organized 
that  stimuli  once  started  as  sensation  ends 
as  a  given  sort  of  conduct,  without  any 
effort  of  will,  often  without  consciousness. 
A  shorthand  report  of  the  conversation 
of  some  persons  would  be  a  revelation  to 
them. 

Put  a  block  of  wood  into  one  machine 
and  it  comes  out  a  bung,  or  a  piece  of 
wire  into  another  and  you  get  a  buckle.  If 
you  put  the  wood  into  the  buckle  machine, 
the  best  that  it  can  do  is  to  attempt  to 
make    a  wooden  buckle ;   or  the   wire   into 


IOO        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

the  bung  machine,  and  it  goes  spinning 
around  as  if  wire  were  just  the  thing  for 
bungs. 

There  is  a  philosophy  which  claims  that 
man  will  have  reached  his  highest  estate 
when  all  his  physical,  intellectual  and 
moral  activities  have  become  completely 
unconscious ;  but  it  is  a  very  narrow 
philosophy. 

It  is  highly  important  for  us  to  see  that 
while  Christian  character  is  dependent 
upon  a  physical  basis  in  thorough  sympathy, 
so  to  speak,  with  its  high  ideals  and  pure 
aspirations,  yet  that  character  is  far  from 
being  a  blind  bundle  of  mechanically 
executed  habits.  It  is  keenly  alive  and 
constantly  employed  in  co-ordinating  its 
various  activities  so  that  it  may  the  better 
know  and  do  the  right.  It  may  act  or 
decline  to  act  until  careful  deliberation 
has  made  the  path  of  duty  plain.  It  may, 
indeed,  and  often  does  decide  against  a 
present  advantage  for  the  sake  of  an 
ultimate  good. 

Christian   character   is   the  very  opposite 


THE    UPWARD    WAY.  IOI 

of    thraldom ;     it  is     a    synonym     of  the 

highest    liberty.  "If,     therefore,    the  Son 

shall    make    you  free,    ye    shall    be  free 
indeed." 

THE    UPWARD    WAY. 

But  how  shall  we  make  substantial  prog- 
ress in  the  upward  way?  Several  condi- 
tions are  set;  let  us  repeat  them: 

I.  A  determination  to  go  that  way.  The 
determination  is  clearly  suggested  from 
above.  It  is  not  possible  for  us  to  prompt 
ourselves  to  better  lives.  Whatever  may  be 
said  of  evolution  in  nature,  there  is  no 
evolution  in  morals  without  God.  History 
holds  before  us  many  fearful  pages  of  warn- 
ing; and  the  study  of  the  trend  of  some 
types  of  our  present  civilization  is  full  of 
painful  evidence  along  this  line.  But  we  are 
not  forced  to  obey  the  promptings  of  the 
Spirit.  As  many  too  sadly  know,  it  is  possi- 
ble to  shut  the  door  against  this  voice  until 
its  pleadings  can  be  no  longer  heard. 

The  Spirit  pleads,  but  the  determination 
must  be  our  own. 

II.  A  sincere  regret  for  the  past.     In  this 


102        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

we  must  stand  alone.  No  one  else,  no 
matter  how  deep  his  interest  in  us,  can  act 
for  us.  Not  even  a  loving  mother's  tears 
will  avail. 

III.     Forgiveness  for  that  past. 

This  comes  to  us  through  Him  who  died 
that  we  might  live.  I  have  never  heard  any- 
one objecting  to  the  religious  life  who  might 
not  be  placed  in  one  of  these  two  classes : 
(i)  Those  who  by  dissipation  and  the  utter 
disregard  of  God's  claims  upon  them  have 
become  blase,  and  have  perhaps  placed  them- 
selves outside  the  conditions  of  His  influence; 
(2)  those  persons  whose  splendid  abilities 
have  been  so  absorbed  in  other  activities 
that  they  have  never  taken  time  to  give  this 
most  serious  matter  any  careful  considera- 
tion. Many  who  sneer  at  Christianity,  and 
who,  not  altogether  consistently,  claim  for 
themselves  an  intellectuality  which  is  supe- 
rior to  any  such  "superstitions,"  do  so,  I 
imagine,  from  want  of  practical  knowledge 
rather  than  by  reason  of  it.  Had  they 
brought  to  this  question  the  same  spirit  of 
earnest  inquiry  which  they  require  of  them- 


THE    UPWARD    WAY.  IO3 

selves  in  their  chosen  specialties,  their  opin- 
ions would  be  worthy  of  greater  consider- 
ation. 

IV.  A  thoroughly  developed  physical 
basis,  obedient  to  and  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  aspiring  soul  within. 

In  this  development  the  individual,  alone 
with  God,  must  do  the  building;  but  society 
could  be  wonderfully  helpful. 

If  the  former  life  has  been  evil  the  old 
Trunk  Lines  are  there,  and  often,  too  often, 
are  so  thoroughly  established  that  the  un- 
wary soul  is  carried  back  into  his  self-im- 
posed bondage.  "And  these  have  no  root, 
which  for  a  while  believe,  and  in  time  of 
temptations  fall  away." 

In  a  very  subtle  reciprocal  sense  the 
physical  basis  of  a  wicked  life  is  the  greatest 
hindrance  to  a  prompt  compliance  with  the 
first  and  second  of  these  conditions. 

The  moment  is  most  critical  when  the  con- 
verted soul  realizes  the  presence  of  the  old 
nerve  combinations.  He  begins  to  grow  dis- 
couraged, to  despair  of  ever  being  able  to 
walk  worthily.     He   doubts   his    conversion, 


104        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

because  he  has  just  discovered  a  law,  as  St. 
Paul  did  when  he  said,  "I  find  then  the  law, 
that  to  me  who  would  do  good,  evil  is 
present." 

The  danger  is  that  he  will  give  up  the 
struggle,  or  that  under  the  social  pressure  of 
his  public  obligation  he  will  drop  into  an 
assumed  life.  All  depends  upon  his  ability 
to  keep  so  close  to  the  Divine  One,  so  thor- 
oughly under  His  guidance  moment  by 
moment,  so  completely  out  of  reach  of  the 
old  stimuli  and  so  actively  preoccupied  in 
doing  God's  will,  that  the  old  Trunk  Lines 
may  be  broken  up  into  new  combinations 
whose  pleasure  is  the  doing  of  good  rather 
than  evil. 

You  complain  that  the  conditions  are 
hard  ?  Granted.  But  they  are  easier  now 
than  they  will  ever  be  for  you  again.  Besides, 
whom  have  you  to  blame  ?  Who  formed 
those  Trunk  Lines  of  vice  ? 

Some  persons  who  know  nothing  of  these 
struggles  treat  them  with  indifference  ;  even 
deny  that  anything  of  the  sort  is  necessary 
in  taking  on  the  Christian  character.     But  I 


THE    UPWARD    WAY.  105 

protest  that  they  are  not  competent  jurors. 
Because  the  thermometer  over  the  glowing 
hearth  in  your  elegant  parlor  indicates  a 
summer  atmosphere,  it  is  vain  for  you  to 
rush  out  into  the  snow  and  ice  of  a  winter 
night  to  convince  the  half-naked  wanderer 
on  your  door-step  that  his  discomfort  is  only 
a  mistaken  notion  of  his. 

Much  of  our  preaching  is  of  the  parlor 
thermometer  sort.  It  applies  to  us  as  we 
might  be,  perhaps  ought  to  be,  but  not  as  we 
are.  In  our  eagerness  for  numbers  do  we 
not  ignore  the  law  ? 

The  first  three  conditions  are  faithfully 
and  earnestly  presented  from  almost  every 
pulpit,  and  are  recognized  everywhere  by 
the  Christian  Church ;  but  the  fourth, 
although  absolutely  necessary,  is  rarely  taken 
into  consideration. 

This  book  is  the  expressed  conviction  of 
the  writer  that  we  shall  never  build  the 
highest  types  of  Christian  character  until 
society  feels  a  deeper  concern  for  the 
establishment  in  youth  of    none  but   sound 


nerve  tracks  in  moral  areas. 

fP   OF  TH, 

fijHIVER'ITTii 


106        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

But  how  is  society  to  proceed  ? 
Precisely  as  she  does  in 

THE  BUILDING  OF  SOUND  NERVE  TRACKS 

in  any  other  area  where  there  is  a  mutual 
interdependence  of  mind  and  body. 

How  do  you  secure  a  physical  basis  for 
exquisite  musical  interpretation  ? 

Certainly  not  by  placing  the  score  of  a 
Chopin  Ballade  upon  the  rack  and  attempt- 
.  ing  to  render  it.  You  may  possess  a  soul 
full  of  music  and  be  thoroughly  able  to 
appreciate  and  enjoy  Chopin  when  properly 
interpreted,  but  you  have  as  yet  no  individu- 
ally formed  nerve  connections  between  the 
light  and  shade  on  that  printed  page  and  the 
keyboard  of  your  instrument. 

What  must  be  done  ? 

Seat  yourself  at  your  piano  (Figure  20). 
Hold  your  open  hand  over  the  keyboard. 
vA  wave  of  stimulation  from  some  luminant 
is  reflected  from  the  printed  page  to  the 
retina  of  your  eye,  and  is  forwarded  to  your 
brain.  With  difficulty  interpreting  the  cipher, 
you  send  a  message  down  to  your  third 
finger  to    strike    C    of   the   keyboard.     But 


BUILD  SOUND  NERVE  TRACKS.      107 

there  is  no  definitely  worn  track  along  the 
outcarrying  nerve  to  the  appropriate  muscle, 
or  perhaps  the  difficulty  is  in  the  want  of  a 
properly  built  nerve  centre  for  that  particular 
activity. 

The  stimulus  becomes  diffused.  The 
muscles  of  the  fourth  finger  get  a  part  of  it; 
those  of  the  second,  even  the  first  may 
come  in  for  a  share.  The  result  is  that 
your  fingers  spread  like  the  spokes  of  a 
wheel.  .Three  of  them  disobey  orders. 
But  a  thoughtful  repetition  of  the  command 
over  and  over  again,  will  in  time  wear  direct 
paths,  or  build  proper  nerve  centres,  so  that 
after  years  of  the  most  exacting  labor  you 
glance  at  the  page,  the  stimulus  flashes  its 
round  and  your  finger  obeys  while  your 
thought  is  otherwise  employed.  I  have 
found  by  careful  experiment  with  a  distin- 
guished organist  that  he  can  with  his  hands 
and  his  feet  execute  an  average  of  one 
hundred  and  seventeen  orders  in  a  second 
of  time,  and  be  meanwhile  busily  employed 
in  intelligent  conversation. 

But  I  insist  upon  it  that  I  am  not  neces- 


108        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

sarily  reducing  the  musician  to  a  mere 
machine.  Having  established  sound  nerve 
centres,  and  tracks  in  the  desired  area,  the 
Ego  is  left  at  liberty  to  busy  itself  in  inter- 
pretation. The  Paderewskis,  the  Pachmans, 
the  Rubinsteins  (if  one  may  be  pardoned 
for  putting  such  names  in  the  plural),  are 
not  musical  machines.  By  being  able  to 
pass  the  technique  over  to  their  nerve 
centres  their  souls  are  all  the  more  free 
to  breathe  out  the  glorious  inner. sense  of 
the  Master  Spirit  who  speaks  through 
them. 

Suppose  the  instrument  before  you  is  a 
type-writer  and  the  stimuli  reach  the  ear 
from  dictation.  You  may  rattle  off  a  page 
almost  as  rapidly  as  it  can  be  pronounced, 
without  being  able  when  it  is  finished  to 
reproduce  a  single  thought  that  it  contained. 
You  may  not  even  know  the  order  of  the 
letters  on  your  keyboard  ;  *but  you  are  by  no 
means  reduced  to  the  level  of  your  machine. 
Having  established   a  physical  basis   in   this 

*I  have  found  several  very  expert  type-writers  who  could  not  re- 
produce the  keyboard  from  memory. 


BUILD  SOUND  NERVE  TRACKS.      IO9 

area,  you  not  only  write  more  accurately, 
but  you  are  free  to  engage  in  other  activities. 
You  may  think  out  a  better  speech  than  the 
one  you  are  writing  from  dictation,  or  decide 
upon  the  quality  and  cut  of  your  next  change 
of  garments,  or  any  other  equally  serious 
concern  of  your  own. 

If  you  are  expert  at  hunting  on  the  wing, 
you  will  remember  that  at  the  proper  instant 
your  gun  goes  into  position,  sight  is  taken 
and  the  trigger  pulled  without  any  thought 
at  all.  These  details  have  been  by  long 
practice  handed  over  to  your  nerve  centres, 
leaving  you  free  to  decide  which  bird  you 
will  take,  how  much  of  a  start  you  will  let 
him  have,  and  such  like.  But  an  unex- 
pected noise  might  call  out  your  shot  before 
you  were  conscious  of  what  you  were  doing. 

You  may  remember  the  pains  that  the 
writing  of  your  first  letter  of  friendship  cost 
you.  Perhaps  you  spoiled  half  a  dozen 
sheets  of  paper  before  you  made  the  heading 
to  suit.  Now,  after  thinking  a  sentence 
through  and  commencing  to  commit  it  to 
paper,  you  find  your  thought  proceeding   to 


IIO        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

the  next,  but  presently  returning  to  the  work 
in  hand,  behold  it  is  already  duly  executed. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  multiply  illustrations. 
They  are  matters  of  common  experience. 
Let  us  proceed  to  their  application  in  the 
case  of  right  living. 

Character  is  a  sort  of  body-guard  to  the 
spirit,  always  on  duty  in  part  or  in  full  as 
occasion  requires.  But  the  service  is  for 
life.  The  forces  can  not  be  mustered  out 
and  re-enlisted  at  pleasure ;  neither  may 
veterans  be  displaced  by  raw  recruits  with 
any  guarantee  of  valorous  behavior  under 
fire.  As  every  private  in  the  Queen's  Guard 
is  the  embodiment  of  years  of  faithful  drill 
and  discipline,  so  every  fixed  rule  of  action 
in  a  worthy  character  has  back  of  it  a 
long  catalogue  of  tributary  regulations — self- 
ordered  and  self -obeyed. 

The  commonplace,  the  unimportant,  every- 
thing, must  be  done  as  though  life  hinged 
upon  it,  until  sound  trunk  lines  are  formed 
out  from  which  to  build  suburban  tracks  into 
every  field  of  lofty  thought  and  endeavor. 

An  English  artist  who  became  celebrated 


BUILD  SOUND  NERVE  TRACKS.      I  I  I 

for  steadiness  of  hand  drew  his  earliest, 
crudest  sketches  with  pen  and  ink  because 
he  knew  that  he  could  not  alter  a  single 
stroke  and  was  thus  obliged  to  think  out 
every  line  before  executing  it ;  so  he  who 
desires  to  acquire  steadfastness  of  character 
must  remember  that  behind  his  finished 
ideal  there  must  needs  be  years  of  con- 
scientious heroic  effort. 

Too  many  young  people  expect  to  build 
gorgeous  ceilings  with  never  a  thought  of  the 
deeply-buried  foundation  stones  upon  which 
ceiling  and  walls  must  rest. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  just  where  the 
voluntary  formation  of  nerve  tracks  begins. 
Certainly  not  with  first  experiences.  Any- 
one with  a  clear  memory  of  his  early 
childhood  will  recall  his  peculiar  emotions 
at  every  new  experience.  His  first  pair  of 
red-topped  boots,  trousers,  toy  engine,  his 
first  horseback  ride  alone,  his  first  appear- 
ance before  an  audience,  each  of  these 
would  set  him  off  into  a  kind  of  half-dazed, 
walking-on-air  state  in  which  his  will  had  no 
authority   whatever.     His   first    night  away 


112         SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

from  home  might  fill  him  with  unexplainable 
and  absurd  apprehensions  ;  his  first  absence 
from  the  object  of  his  childish  affection 
might  cause  him,  in  spite  of  himself,  to  hurry 
back,  fully  convinced  that  some  terrible 
calamity  had  befallen  her. 

The  writer  well  remembers  when  less  than 
three  years  old  standing  near  his  mother's 
open  grave.  The  Church  service  had  seemed 
like  the  usual  routine  of  Sabbath  services 
which  could  not  now  be  recalled  except  for 
its  association  with  what  followed,  but  the 
service  at  the  grave  put  him  into  that 
far  -  away  mood  always  incident  to  new 
experiences.  As  he  dreamily  watched  the 
lowering  of  the  coffin  which  contained  the 
body  of  his  best  friend,  some  bystander 
caught  his  arm  and  said  almost  harshly, 
"  Stand  back,  you'll  fall  in,"  but  the  caution 
did  not  alarm  him  and  he  did  not  move.  If 
he  had  been  told  to  leap  in  with  the 
descending  clods,  he  would  have  obeyed 
promptly,  taking  it  for  granted  that  he 
would  be  thus  doing  his  appropriate  part  in 
the  strange  programme. 


BUILD  SOUND  NERVE  TRACKS.      I  1 3 

Under  the  daze  of  new  experiences  a 
child  is  not  responsible  for  his  conduct,  and 
the  reproofs  which  he  too  often  receives  are 
as  unavailing  as  they  are  ill-timed  and  un- 
kind. He  can  not  fortify  himself  against 
the  unforeseen. 

But  having  been  brought  into  an  exper- 
ience of  whatever  sort,  his  memory  of  its 
effects  gives  him  a  hold  upon  it,  and  here  is 
where  responsibility  and  character  building 
begin. 

Every  step  now  is  critical. 

If  he  might  only  know  the  trend  of  each 
experience,  and  thus  enlightened  proceed  to 
will  the  useful  ones  over  and  over  until 
Trunk  Lines  are  established,  or  knowing  the 
ill,  consent  at  once  and  forever  to  dismiss 
them — this  would  be  an  ideal  way  to  build 
character. 

Here  is  where  Society  makes  her  fatal 
mistake  with  her  sons.  There  are  many  ex- 
periences which  never  have  aided  and  never 
can  aid  in  the  formation  of  sound  nerve 
tracks.     They  are  a  dead  weight  at  best. 

Professor     Agassiz,    while     studying     the 


114        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

glaciers  of  the  Alps,  had  his  companions 
lower  him  into  a  fissure  of  unknown  depth, 
where  he  spent  an  hour  or  more  examining 
the  stratification  of  the  ice,  and  other  phe- 
nomena. Having  stayed  as  long  as  he 
thought  advisable,  he  signalled  to  be  drawn 
up  again.  But  when  his  companions  heaved 
upon  the  rope  they  were  dismayed  to  find 
that  their  united  strength  was  not  equal  to 
the  task.  Before  lowering  the  Professor 
they  had  duly  estimated  his  weight  and  their 
own  strength,  but  they  had  omitted  to  take 
into  account  the  weight  of  the  rope,  of  which 
several  hundred  feet  had  been  paid  out,  and 
all  too  late  they  discovered  that  they  could 
not  draw  up  both  the  scientist  and  the  rope. 
Most  of  us  to  our  dismay  have  made  the 
same  discovery  of  unexpected  dead  weight 
after  hurtful  trunk  lines  and  their  associate 
nerve  tracks  have  been  formed.  Professor 
Agassiz's  assistants  left  him  suspended  in 
the  heart  of  the  glacier  until  additional  help 
could  be  obtained  and  he  be  relieved  from 
his  uncomfortable  if  not  perilous  plight;  but 
trunk  lines  of  evil  once  formed  are  a  dead 


BUILD  SOUND  NERVE  TRACKS.      I  I  5 

weight  for  life.  There  is  no  way  to  undo 
the  past,  sin  is  irrevocable,  and  society  knows 
it,  but  she  is  not  honest  with  us. 

Lest  some  hasty  critic  might  glance  at  this 
last  statement  and  sound  a  note  of  alarm 
without  taking  time  to  examine  further,  I 
will  repeat  what  has  been  so  often  said  in 
this  little  book,  that  I  believe  in  conversion; 
but  conversion  is  a  spiritual  and  not  a  physi- 
cal change. 

Parents  themselves  often  increase  the 
difficulties  in  the  early  formation  of  sound 
nerve  tracks. 

"Did  you  not  promise  your  son  to  stop  at 
the  hotel  for  him  on  your  way  to  the  park?" 
I  asked  of  an  acquaintance  whom  I  had 
casually  met  in  traveling. 

"O,  yes,"  was  the  unconcerned  reply, 
"but  that  makes  no  difference.  He's  only  a 
little  fellow,  and  will  soon  forget  it." 

But  that  father  must  not  hold  himself 
blameless  if  his  son  in  after  years,  though 
speaking  the  truth,  is  not  believed. 

A  parent  who  abuses  her  child  for  deceiv- 
ing her  and  the  same  day  openly  boasts  of 


I  1 6        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

her  own  shrewdness  in  defrauding  the  gro- 
cer's boy  out  of  a  sixpence  may  not  appre- 
ciate that  she  is  making  it  exceedingly  diffi- 
cult for  her  son  to  become  an  honest  man, 
but  she  scarcely  deserves  to  be  called  by 
that  sacred  name  "Mother."  Indeed  it  is 
difficult  to  understand  the  Providence  which 
permits  the  precious  little  ones  to  come  into 
some  homes. 

Example  is  much  more  stimulating  to  a 
child  than  precept.  It  is  useless  to  teach 
him  the  letter  of  the  law  without  bringing 
him  under  the  influence  of  its  practically 
embodied  spirit.  A  father's  bad  example 
may  undo  a  mother's  prayer. 

As  much  as  possible  be  yourself  the 
companion  of  your  child  —  that  is  if  you  are 
fit  to  be  a  companion  of  childhood  — and 
hand  in  hand  pursue  the  upward  way. 

The  yearning  of  every  parent's  heart 
should  be,  "How  shall  I  go  up  to  my 
Father  and  the  lad  be  not  with  me?" 

But  while  thus  endeavoring  to  build 
sound  nerve  tracks,  we  should  be  equally 
solicitous  to 


PREVENT  UNSOUND  NERVE  TRACKS.   I  I  7 

PREVENT       THE       ESTABLISHMENT      OF     UNSOUND      NERVE 
TRACKS. 

Youth  should  be  surrounded  with  health- 
ful incentives  to  right  action,  but  more,  it 
should  be  from  the  earliest  moment 
protected  against  pernicious  influences. 
Granting  that  beautiful  Christian  character 
is  sometimes  developed  in  spite  of  a  vicious 
environment,  it  is  a  disgrace  to  our 
civilization  that  the  necessity  occurs. 

Know  with  whom  and  how  your  boys 
spend  their  leisure.  Ten  minutes  a  day 
on  some  play -grounds  will  destroy  the 
immediate  effects  of  a  consecrated  home. 
But  do  not  abolish  the  play -ground  ;  make 
it  rather  a  proper  place  for  your  boys. 
That  is  what  play -grounds  are  for. 

Kant's  opinion,  which  is  so  often  quoted 
as  an  argument  for  allowing  young  people 
the  utmost  license  in  matters  of  right  and 
wrong,  is  only  conditionally  true.     He  says: 

"Trees  when  allowed  to  grow  in  the  open 
air  prosper  better  and  bear  more  generous 
fruit  than  those  which  are  forced  as  to  shape 
in  hot-houses  by  artificial  processes." 


I  1 8        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

That  depends  upon  how  conducive  to 
growth  and  fruitage  the  open  air  is.  Did 
Kant  ever  compare  the  magnificent  chestnut 
or  elm  of  some  famous  avenue  of  Old 
England  or  the  Continent  with  the  dwarfed, 
stunted,  ostrich-bodied  specimens  of  the 
same  species  on  a  far  Western  prairie  of  the 
United  States,  struggling  against  terrific 
cold,  drought,  and  an  "open  air"  which 
blows  at  an  average  rate  of  thirty  miles  an 
hour?  And  as  to  fruit,  did  Kant  know  that 
Black  Hamburg  grapes,  grown  to  indifferent 
size  under  the  sunny  skies  of  France  at  a 
few  francs  the  cart  load,  can  not  be  grown 
at  all  in  the  open  air  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  in  America,  but  that  under  glass 
they  become  so  large  and  luscious  that 
sometimes  in  New  York  City  or  Chicago 
they  bring  five  dollars  a  bunch? 

When  the  "open  air"  is  charged  with 
sewer  gas  we  do  not  hesitate  to  shut  our 
doors  against  it,  and  why  should  we  be  so  lib- 
eral upon  the  question  of  moral  contagion  ? 
It  is  curious  that  we  discriminate  at  every  step 
in    the    development  of    muscle    and    mind, 


PREVENT  UNSOUND  NERVE  TRACKS.   I  I Q 

but  in  morals  we  become  suddenly  "  broad- 
minded."  "Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence, 
for  out  of  it  are  the  issues  of  life." 

The  sooner  we  realize  that  the  "wild 
oats"  sentiment  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare, 
the  better  it  will  be  for  us  all. 

The  "open  air"  doctrine  has  not  produced 
the  most  gratifying  results  in  Kant's  own 
country.  I  copy  from  an  excellent  college 
journal  just  sent  to  my  table,  a  student's 
account  of  some  of  the  practical  workings, 
of  this  doctrine.  The  article  is  headed, 
"German  Student  Life  As  It  Is,"  and  the 
writer  is  evidently  honest  and  faithful  to  the 
the  facts,  except  that  they  are  given  only 
in  broadest  outline.  In  the  course  of  the 
article  the  writer  says: 

"Every  now  and  again  the  old  cravings 
return,  and  he  joins  a  so-called  'Bier 
Bummel.'  This  bier  journey  is  always  per- 
formed in  some  non-university  town,  for 
reasons  which  will  be  obvious.  The  journey 
which  I  will  describe  was  made  in  the  world- 
famed  Nuremburg,  so  well  known  by  innum- 
erable pictures  and  engravings.  The  band 
consisted  of  seven,  who  did  their  best  to 
enliven  the  city.      First  went  in   front  one 


120        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

with  an  umbrella  to  which  a  huge  cucumber 
was  tied;  the  second  (all  in  single  file) 
munched  a  bunch  of  carrots ;  a  third  ate 
cherries  from  a  big  bag,  and  so  on,  all  sing- 
ing popular  German  student  melodies.  Nor, 
as  might  be  expected,  were  the  healing 
waters  of  Munich,  of  Pilsener,  of  Gratz,  or 
of  Erlanger  left  untasted. 

"After  a  rather  boisterous  luncheon,  the 
crowd  repaired  to  an  open-air  concert,  where 
the  umbrella  with  attendant  cucumber,  much 
to  the  astonishment  of  the  foreign  visitors, 
was  erected  on  the  table  supported  by  sticks 
resting  on  beer-mugs.  Here  a  new  society 
was  formed  ( which  still  flourishes  with  un- 
wonted vigor  ),  and  laws,  beer  laws,  coat- of - 
arms,  cirkel,  etc.,  were  made  in  parody  of 
the  real  'Comment,'  amid  much  fun  and 
laughter.  At  eight  p.  m.  a  'Bier-reise'  was 
inaugurated.  This  consists  of  visiting  in 
succession  every  house  of  refreshment  en 
route,  and  partaking  of  one  glass  only  there- 
in. Every  member  moreover  was  bound  to 
take  away  in  turn  a  'Masskrug'  (a  stone 
beer  mug  holding  about  i  Y±  pints  ),  so  that  at 
the  end  of  the  journey  each  one  was  pro- 
vided with  a  'dress  improver'  attached  to 
the  band  found  at  the  back  of  foreign 
unmentionables,  At  three  a.  m.  the  whole 
party,  slightly  riotous,  repaired  to  the 
station,  and  at  dawn,  about  four  a.  m.,  they 
departed  for  their  alma  mater,  singing  quar- 
tets, part  songs  and  choruses. 


PREVENT  UNSOUND  NERVE  TRACKS.   121 

"  Looking  back  at  this  curious  performance 
I  find  that  much  of  the  sparkle  has  gone ; 
but  I  never  shall  forget  the  laughable  spec- 
tacle we  presented,  walking  in  broad  day- 
light to  our  destination,  with  our  beer-mug 
improvers,  which  we  had  forgotten  to 
remove,  the  streets  being  crowded  with 
students,  professors  going  to  lecture,  market 
women,  peasants  and  burghers." 

I  have  seen  the  beginning  and  the  end  of 
such  a  Bier  Bummel ;  only  that  out  of  the 
score  of  participants  about  half  of  them  will 
never  be  able  to  remember  the  "  laughable 
spectacle"  of  their  walk  home  in  broad  day- 
light. They  were  too  drunk  to  walk.  Eighty 
per  cent,  of  the  students,  and  among  them 
some  possessing  great  innate  ability,  sacri- 
ficed to  this  irrational  notion  of  liberty  is  a 
fearful  price  to  pay.  I  sincerely  hope  and 
pray  that  there  may  come  a  speedy  reaction 
against  such  false  conceptions  of  how  to 
train  the  young  for  future  usefulness  and 
ultimate  happiness.  Youth  was  not  given 
us  to  be  spent  in  cultivating  nerve  tracks 
for  idiotic  displays  of  buffoonery  and  dissi- 
pation. 

A  lively  boy  reads  low-class  literature  or 


122         SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

sees  indecent  pictures.  He  may  have  found 
them  in  the  columns  of  some  " enterprising" 
newspaper  on  his  father's  table,  or  on  the 
bill-boards  of  a  "highly  respectable"  opera 
house,  or  as  advertisements  of  the  abomin- 
able cigarette.  Or  he  hears  an  unseemly 
story  from  a  playmate,  or  perhaps  from  an 
older  person  who  ought  to  be  ashamed  that 
he  has  no  better  business. 

These  external  suggestions  may  be  re- 
peated, or,  what  amounts  to  precisely  the 
same  thing,  he  may  reproduce  them  in 
imagination.  Every  rehearsal  sends  the 
stimuli  a  little  more  easily  along  definite 
lines  from  the  brain  into  motor  nerves  tend- 
ing towards  action.  "For  as  he  thinketh  in 
his  heart,  so  is  he."  Good  influences  gradu- 
ally lose  their  hold  upon  him  as  his  mind 
becomes  more  and  more  absorbed  in  the  vile 
imagery  which  he  is  day  by  day  dyeing  a 
little  more  deeply  in  his  own  life's  blood. 
Presently  those  secretly  formed  Trunk  Lines 
grow  strong  enough  to  assert  themselves. 
True,  they  are  not  entities,  any  more  than 
hunger  and  toothache  are  entities,  but  they 


PREVENT    UNSOUND    NERVE    TRACKS.        1 23 

become  so  thoroughly  organized  and  so  sen- 
sitive to  the  accustomed  stimuli  that  they 
demand  expression,  and  the  lad  is  irresist- 
ibly led  into  criminality. 


CONCLUSION. 

The  most  casual  observer  must  have 
noticed  how  ready  children  are  to  respond 
to  good  influences.  When  they  have  grown 
to  young  manhood  without  yielding  obedi- 
ence to  the  Divine  will,  the  tendency  is 
towards  indifference  upon  moral  questions. 
At  middle  life  they  "would  be  glad  to  be- 
lieve as  you  do  but  can  not  really  under- 
stand things  that  way."  In  old  age  Christian 
character  has  become  to  them  only  a  tradi- 
tion, to  be  classed  along  with  the  other 
traditions  of  the  dead  past,  and  they  step 
out  into  eternity  denying  that  there  is  an 
eternity. 

Our  constant  effort  should  be  to  save  the 
youth  from  the  formation  of  a  physical  basis 
of  vice  ;  so  that  they  shall  from  early  child- 
hood push  steadily  up  toward  the  mountain 
top. 

Every  youth  should  realize  that  the  prob- 
lem increases  in  difficulty  and  grows  less 
likely  of  solution  as  the  soul  becomes  more 


CONCLUSION.  T25 

and  more  bound  by  a  network  of  evil  appe- 
tites and  passions  which  are  hurrying  it 
towards  the  blackest  shadows  at  the  bottom 
of  the  grade. 

Youth  is  the  time  to  economize  nervous 
energy ;  to  build  by  individual  exertion 
strong  Trunk  Lines  of  reserve  power  for 
future  emergencies.  In  building  for  the 
future  we  but  provide  for  the  present,  for 
the  present  is  made  out  of  the  future.  The 
future  of  yesterday  is  the  present  of  to-day. 
In  great  crises  we  do  not  act  upon  the 
resolution  of  the  moment,  but  upon  the 
reserves  of  our  past  life  stored  in  our 
nervous  mechanism.  Christian  character 
is  the  only  safe  equipment  for  such  exigen- 
cies, and  the  ripest  Christian  character 
obtains  only  when  its  foundations  are  laid  in 
youth.  Then  the  nervous  system  is  plastic 
presently  it  becomes  "set." 

Youth  comes  but  once  to  any  of  us.  The 
seasons,  with  their  flowers  and  singing  birds, 
their  fruits  and  gathered  grain,  return  again 
and  again,  but  youth  returns  never.  The 
blunders  of  one  seed-time,  mav  be  remedied 


126        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

at  the  next  but  youth  once  lived  can  not  be 
lived  over  again. 

The  laughing  brook  after  it  has  left  the 
mill  may  be  caught  upon  the  bosom  of  a 
cloud  and  carried  back  to  its  mountain 
home  to  turn  that  creaking  wheel  again, 
but  when  youth  flies  away  it  returns  not. 

It  is  a  little  thing  to  hear  your  clock  tick 
—  tick  —  tick;  it  is  an  easy  thing  to  under- 
stand why  every  half  minute  it  calls  out 
its  click  —  click  —  click;  a  feeble  thing  is 
its  delicate  mechanism,  a  baby's  finger 
could  stop  its  monotonous  one  —  two  — 
three;  a  silly  thing  for  you  to  think  that  you 
are  any  the  better  or  the  worse  because  of 
its  soulless  clack  —  clack  —  clack;  a  tremen- 
dous, an  appalling  thing  to  know  that  the 
instants  of  time  which  it  hands  out  now  — 
now  —  now,  are  gone  from  you  forever;  and 
not  only  may  you  never  recover  them,  but 
you  may  have  an  eternity  of  regret  for  their 
loss:  for  of  all  the  curses  that  hang  like  a 
dark  pall  over  a  young  man's  shoulders,  the 
blackest  of  them  all  is  the  curse  of  neglected 
opportunities. 


CONCLUSION.  127 

In  your  association  with  youth  be  careful 
even  in  trifles,  and  never  forget  that  your 
life  much  more  than  your  profession  may 
change  the  trend  of  other  lives. 

Sometimes  in  your  despondent  moments 
you  may  cry  out,  "What  does  it  matter? 
My  influence  is  of  no  consequence.  There 
is  nothing  for  me  to  do  that  can  not  be  a 
great  deal  better  done  by  others." 

Not  so.  Not  so.  The  light  of  a  match 
may  be  insignificant  when  compared  with 
the  blazing  lenses  of  a  light-house,  but  I 
once  learned  a  lesson  which  has  caused  me 
from  that  day  to  thank  God  for  the  light  of 
a  match. 

While  traveling  with  my  family  in  Florida 
we  were  spending  a  little  time  at  Warring- 
ton, across  the  bay  from  Fort  Pickens.  One 
evening  I  concluded  to  visit  the  Pensacola 
light-house,  and,  as  the  balmy  spring  air  was 
loaded  with  the  fragrance  of  the  fresh 
orange  blossoms  and  the  grateful  evening 
breeze  from  the  Gulf  was  just  springing  up 
to  relieve  us  from  the  heat  of  the  day,  I 
proposed  that  my  wife  and  son,  a  lad  nine 


128        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

years  of  age,  and  a  young  gentleman  who 
was  traveling  with  us,  should  accompany  me. 
They  readily  consented. 

We  procured  a  young  darkey  as  guide, 
and  started  at  about  eight  o'clock  for  the 
light-house  which  was  some  distance  around 
the  beach.  The  walk  was  delightful,  and, 
after  accomplishing  the  object  of  the  visit, 
we  descended  from  the  tower  to  return.  It 
was  quite  dark.  Presently,  coming  squarely 
up  against  the  incoming  waves,  we  dis- 
covered that  we  had  lost  our  way,  and  that 
our  guide  was  so  dazed  from  his  climb  into 
the  light-house  tower  that  he  had  lost  all 
notion  of  his  whereabouts.  We  held  a  con- 
sultation and  decided  with  the  aid  of  the 
beams  from  the  light-house  to  take  a 
general  course  somewhat  across  the  island 
towards  Warrington.  Our  friend  and  my 
boy  led,  my  wife  and  I  followed,  and  the 
darkey,  trembling  with  fright,  brought  up 
the  rear.  It  was  difficult  to  pick  our  way 
because  the  beams  from  the  flash  panels  of 
the  light  were  so  high  above  us  and  were 
focused    so    many  miles    beyond    where  we 


CONCLUSION.  129 

were  that  they  were  of  little  service  to  us. 
Presently  we  climbed  quite  a  hill,  and  some 
yards  ahead  of  me  I  saw  our  friend  holding 
a  lighted  match  in  one  hand  and  with  the 
other  halting  my  boy.  Coming  up  to  where 
they  had  stopped,  we  found  ourselves  on 
the  edge  of  what  we  supposed  was  a  ditch, 
and  into  which  they  came  near  stepping. 
There  was  a  well  beaten  path  around  it 
which  soon  brought  us  to  the  Warrington 
road,  and  in  an  hour  or  two  more  we  were 
safely  back  to  our  lodgings. 

The  next  day  we  retraced  our  steps,  and 
found  that  what  we  the  night  before  had 
called  a  ditch  was  in  reality  the  moat  around 
old  Fort  Barrancas,  and  but  for  a  match  my 
son  and  his  companion  would  have  fallen 
some  forty  feet  to  its  rocky  bottom.  The 
splendid  two-thousand-candle-power  beams 
from  that  First  Order  Light  had  been  all 
the  time  flashing  above  them,  but  it  was  the 
comparatively  insignificant  light  of  the  match 
which  saved  them  from  a  terrible  fall,  and 
perhaps  from  death. 


130        SECRET    OF    CHARACTER    BUILDING. 

The  value  of  a  Christian  life  cannot  be 
measured  by  comparison  :  man's  plain  duty 
is  to  neglect  not  the  gift  that  is  in  him, 
leaving  the  result  with  God. 


'V      OF  THE  ^. 

UNIVERSIT 

oar 


THE    END. 


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